Mart Wipes His Lips With His Forefinger
Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at
9:14 pm
MARTIN AMIS ON KINGSLEY AMIS: “He used to get panic-attack nightmares. Nightmares followed by panic-attacks. And my mother would bring him in to see me. And I would talk about what I’d done at scho…
Tagged with: Forefinger • Lips • Mart • Wipes • With
Filed under: Panic Attacks
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I’ve just begun my excursion into Kingsley at 40 years old. I sure could have used him over the years. On every page of his there is a phrase or two worth remembering for one’s own lobby, not just as ammunition against our crustier neighbors but as a subsidy in understanding and ultimately getting along with them.
Results on Youtube for “Kingsley Amis” – 1 (this one, not even one frame of footage of the great KA)Results on Youtube for “Jade Goody” – 2,140Pretty neat encapsulation of modern Britain. Remind me not to move back there…
I agree completely with you! Martin Amis demands some thing called discipline and long attention span. Britain ( and the world) is now about mistaking Philistinism and easy pleasures for talent and hard work.
1:30 “It was more like a kind of natural interregnum”Amis loves having a word (which very few people would understand) and using it with an entirely false innocence as if to say “WHAT??? You mean you (peasants) don’t use this word as part of your daily vocabulary?” “Lacuna” is another favourite of his, drops it in all over the place. Will Self like to do the same.
And “carapace.” The man absolutely loves to say “carapace.”
@ryko26 – I read you, but I think intellectuals often employ a word for its usefulness to themselves rather than some sort of showiness. I suppose that can be a flaw in interpersonal communication–not accounting duly for nature of one’s audience. But then again I think it is safe to assume that the general acumen of Martin Amis’s audience is quite equal to his verbal pageantry.
Good old Kingsley! I’ve read every word the guy wrote and miss his work terribly. How great to see there are still fans such as you around.
I’ve just begun my excursion into Kingsley at 40 years old. I sure could have used him over the years. On every page of his there is a phrase or two worth remembering for one’s own lobby, not just as ammunition against our crustier neighbors but as a subsidy in understanding and ultimately getting along with them.
I envy you all the geat moments you have ahead. Not a day goes by that a qoute from one of his books pops into my head –like Shakespeare he seems to have an utterance for every circumstance– to help me get through my days.
The most important thing that comes to light through ‘the letters’ is the Kingsley/ Larkin love. We should all love them both.