Diedrick Affirms Self
Frank Kermode concludes his
review of The War against Cliché (LRB Vol 23, No 9, 10 May 2001)
with the following query:
"The acknowledgments page states that the 'pieces in this
book were compiled by Professor James Diedrick.' We thought they were all
compiled by Martin Amis. A double, a nom de guerre? An affable familiar
ghost? President of the Society for the Elimination of the Cliché? We need to
know."
Needless to say, I was surprised and bemused by this confusion. Mark
Sanderson, in his 8 April 2001 review
of The War against Cliché for the Telegraph, had no trouble
determining my identity, writing that assembling The War against Cliché
"has been ably carried out by James Diedrick, author of Understanding
Martin Amis and founder of The Martin Amis Web (http:/martinamis.albion.edu)."
Is
Kermode, a retired professor of Renaissance literature, incapable researching my
identity and c.v.? What about the LRB fact-checkers? Eager to set the
official record straight, I wrote the following letter, published in the 24 May
2001 issue of the LRB (p. 5):
Scruples
In his review of The War against Cliché by
Martin Amis (LRB,
10 May) Frank Kermode questions my existence. I want to assure him
that I am not an Amisian nom de guerre. Nor a doppelgänger. Like the
italicised John Self in the closing pages of Money, I enjoy an
existence free from the designs of Martin Amis. As the author of Understanding
Martin Amis, however, I have been urging publication of Amis's
uncollected book reviews and literary essays for some time, and was
happy to play a role in shepherding them into print.
James Diedrick
Albion College, Albion, Michigan
