The Elegant Variation: COULD WE, PERHAPS, KEEP OUR RESPONSES TO OURSELVES?

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May 05, 2008

COULD WE, PERHAPS, KEEP OUR RESPONSES TO OURSELVES?

Let us all share a collective tear for Martin Amis who, according to the Globe and Mail, is "feeling vulnerable" ...

Amis sighs, or least lets out an exasperated breath. He's had more public lashings than most critics have had free lunches, and you sense this latest won't finish him off. “Is the discourse so limited?” he asks. “Is there not room for this? I make no recommendations in this book, I propose no actions. This is just the novelist in the street having a response to an enormous development.”

Posted at 12:07 PM in Words Fail | Permalink

Comments

I don't understand why Martin Amis is so upset. I don't mean this in a nasty way, but he has done remarkably well for a writer without much talent. Instead of genre writing he has taken his limited abilities very far in the world of what used to be called "Serious Literature." In spite of the fact that he doesn't have very much to say, he has sold many books and gotten much critical acclaim. Personally, I have no idea why this is so, but why is he sighing? He should be grateful for what he has. I've tried to read several of his works and couldn't get very far in any of them. I used to think that there was something wrong with me until I realized that the critics were getting stuck in his surface facility and didn't notice that there wasn't anything to back it up. If he is writing to the best of his ability - such as it is - and is doing as well as he is, then he has no complaint. Besides, it doesn't really matter. His work isn't going to last very long after he's gone.

Posted by: D. | May 05, 2008 at 03:02 PM

I scarcely think you, or whatever collection of personalities makes up your "we", are at all in any position to condescend to Martin Amis.

Posted by: Troy | May 05, 2008 at 03:04 PM

Martin couldn't hold a candle to Kingsley. As the author of the great "Lucky Jim" once said to Martin, "you are a leaf in the wind of trend." Or something like that...

Posted by: Robyn Hode | May 05, 2008 at 04:38 PM

And I scarcely thing that anybody with a first name that sounds like a dimwitted linebacker with a drinking problem has any business using my surname. Too bad you're not a woman. Yes, you certainly write like one. But it would be wonderful to have you married to a surname befitting your bereft intellect. Now if I can just get this James guy to stop using me, my duties will be at an end.

Posted by: Patterson | May 05, 2008 at 06:04 PM

Troy, I agree with you. All this Amis-bashing is a little over the top. Dis the politics if you like but the complete dismissal of his fiction is straight-up nuts. Money and The Information are certainly more than "surface facility" to me. It reminds me of the penchant for Tom Wolfe-bashing around here. You may not like what he's doing these days (who could?) but don't dismantle the whole contribution.

Posted by: Daniel | May 06, 2008 at 01:50 AM

I couldn't agree more, Daniel. To bash someone because of their contributions in a specific medium or a specific genre is unseemly for any self-respecting critic.

Posted by: James | May 06, 2008 at 07:32 AM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

May 05, 2008

COULD WE, PERHAPS, KEEP OUR RESPONSES TO OURSELVES?

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

May 05, 2008

COULD WE, PERHAPS, KEEP OUR RESPONSES TO OURSELVES?

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism