From: Jezzaroona
Category: Amis
Date: 7/5/99
Time: 6:31:39 PM
Remote Name: 195.44.206.187
"BTW, Marty is often accused of over-literary obfuscation, as we've discussed. But it seems to me that Amis uses almost no vokab that's obscure or contrived compared with Nabs."
Re-reading *Success* reminds me of how good Amis is at re-using standard language. The proliferation of adjectives within the entire English lexicon has already been mentioned on this site and I started finding that on any page of Terry's narration there might only be one spectacular adjective in its own right, but the the combination of two ordinary "terms" (adjective + noun for instance) to produce something unexpected (out of the mundane) was scattered throughout every sentence. Obviously the ratios within Gregory's narration will be different but I think the overall pattern decribed above still prevails to some degree...might even report back with some examples!!
PS - Have read "Heavy Water" - back to back with reading "Welcome to the Monkey House" by Kurt Vonnegut (collection of less well known shorts). Janitor on Mars seems less of a departure from this style - but "Heavy Water" was pretty darn good as was "Straight Fiction". Wonky characterisation in "The Coincidence of the Arts" and I can't think any more today. Tomorrow.