February 12, 2003
Martin Amis, etc.
In late 2000, Martin Amis' essay collection The War Against Cliché was published to wide acclaim. I had never read his writing and didn't understand the excitement. Nor could I afford the hardcover price to find out. Instead, about two months ago, I picked up The Moronic Inferno, a collection of author profiles, review essays, and culture think-pieces featuring American subjects. I hoped the book would encourage me toward the more recent collection.
It did. I read The Moronic Inferno in three days, which, when limited to subway and bedtime reading, is quite fast. Every sentence hums, each paragraph is an atlas of ideas. The compression involved in conveying complex ideas with short turns of phrase is especially impressive to me as I struggle against 300 and 350 word counts in my art reviews. I don't always agree with him, but I respect his ability to discern what he feels is important in a given situation and to illuminate it with grace (and a little bit of humor.) The War Against Cliché is a bigger helping of the same: here he focuses on twentieth century British and American authors, with larger sections devoted to his favorites and a few side-trips into diversions like chess and football (the non-U.S. kind). The breadth of this collection makes missteps unavoidable--as when he takes on some literary classics in longer pieces for The Atlantic Monthly--but on the whole, I highly recommend both collections.
It is always instructive for me to examine various strains of criticism: from the highly academic to the populist, on written and visual topics, from the (post-)modern to the classics. My library slowly grows. Next on tap are some collections of John Ruskin's writing to be followed by the pairing of Octavio Paz and José Ortega y Gasset. Any suggestions? I am especially interested in early- to mid-20th century literary criticism or any contemporary visual criticism from non-Western locales. It's all appreciated!