Chicago was the only city that really frightened him.
It frightened him because it was there, in Chicago, that he would--or would not--be the subject of the Dub Traynor Interview. Radio: hour-long, one-on-one. This was now in doubt. But it frightened him for other reasons too. The severity of its naked steel frightened him. Chicago, he knew, was the cradle, or the ancient assembly point, of the American political machine. What goes around comes around. I'm okay you're okay. We don't take nobody nobody sent. Chicago, he knew, was the eighth biggest city on earth. Cities are machines. No other city he had ever been to said to you, as Chicago said to you, This is a machine. I am a machine.
--Martin Amis on Richard Tull's book tour, The Information (1995)
During his Newberry Library appearance, Amis read several passages from Experience (page numbers refer to the American hardback edition):
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"The Problem of Reentry," pp. 158-159;
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"Thinking With the Blood," pp. 254-261;
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"Feasts of Friends," pp. 236-237.
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Photos of Amis during and after his Newberry reading (© 2001 by Adam Belanoff)--click on thumbnails to view larger images:
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