From:
Category: Amis
Date: 7/15/99
Time: 7:15:47 AM
Remote Name: 130.159.248.35
Gary Chapin writes:
"'Money and London Fields with their laddish yet learned style, have inspired many imitators.'
Is this true? I've read this in a lot of "critical" venues, but I'll be gobsmacked if I can find anyone coming close to what Amis is doing ... or even trying."
It's all part of the media myth, In which Amis is the Mick Jagger of Lit, The Bad Boy of Letters etc. The "obvious" influence on the next generation. When they say "a thousand Imitators" they often include Alex Garland and James Hawes. This is based on nothing but journalistic laziness, "Oooh there's drugs, sex and swearing in this let,s call him the new Martin Amis". This of course completely ignores the fact that stylistically the "new wave of british writers" are miles away from the "old gaurd". Personally in writers like Mick Jackson, Jackie Kay and Garland and Hawes I detect a move away from "postmodernist self-reflexivity" etc.
Here's a piece that actually notices the differences and credits the pair with some originality, even if it does cling onto Bloom's "Anxiety of Influence" hypothesis a bit too much. oh yes surpise, surpise it's from the telegraph!