Martin Amis on his novel Money

Martin Amis talks about his novel Money to Germain Greer

[@jacklawrence2212]

'John Self is addicted to the 20th century'. Possibly the greatest tag line to any book ever.

[@adammullins3535]

Came across Amis' novel after being referenced to it by Hitchens in his memoir. I'm only in the beginning of the book, but I have never laughed so hard in my life within the first 20 ish pages of anything.

[@louduva9849]

@@Osc1llateW1ldly No.

[@melocomanTV]

I was tripping on acid on a camping trip and reading this novel. Was physically repulsed bu the violence and pornographic nature of the prose. Loved it for its depravity.

[@simontrucker3624]

RIP Mr Amis

[@markbrennan5885]

Amis at his satirical best. A novel worth reading.

[@nickwyatt9498]

Mel Smith - born to play John Self. What a film that would have been. Keifer Sutherland as Fielding.

[@alex-internetlubber]

Rest in peace

[@rigsby1454]

MONEY is a brilliant book. His London Trilogy are my favourite of his

[@genericusername4453]

Upsetting to think that both Smith and Amis are now gone.

[@iamdabossofnepal]

i love what amis has to say every time

[@siddarthsanjay]

Amis puts perfectly what I can only feel but can't articulate, such a gem.

[@SamuelDaram]

Thanks for posting this Amis / 'Money' interview. Funny scene in the cafe with Mel Smith, Funny in the novel, funny here too.

[@thekidd7]

It adds a different context to know that Germaine Greer was almost stalker level obsessed with Martin. She used to write him incredibly creepy letters.

[@LusciousTwinkle]

He looks terrified!

[@TomorrowWeLive]

Especially since with that hair and that shawl she looks like a proper old witch

[@pigknickers]

Mel would have made the definitive John Self and they should have filmed in then, not now. I'm surprised by how much Mel meant to me and the time I spent being entertained by him.

[@user-xn2hf9re8r]

His comment on convulsion of stupidity is what I've been saying for the last 3 yrs - it is frustrating me as parents don't seem to care that they are neglecting their children's wellbeing but letting social media and pop culture rule. I seriously worry about the ignorance of the younger generation regularly excused and pandered to by increasingly ignorant parents.

[@drumgold23]

Don't worry. They know more about living in the modern world than you do and their children will understand their world better than our children will.

[@curiositytax9360]

@@drumgold23iphones, social media. I’m young and these things have had devastating effect on people, especially people I grew up with. Everyone is hopelessly addicted and many of them don’t want to be. They can’t stop. It’s terrifying.

[@RachelIn179]

My favorite novel by Martin Amis.

[@johnjosmith42]

this'll have been 1985. a year after publication. read the novel. greatest thing written since Lolita.

[@undersatan5685]

"Greatest thing written since Lolita" I assume you got that from the back of the Penguin edition with the orange spine and cover by The Douglas Brothers? Either way, straight up; Money is one of the best damn books ever written, ever.

[@johnjosmith42]

@@undersatan5685 agreed ~ i read it once a year and it only gets better and better. The Lolita thing was just my opinion (another perfect novel); why, does it actually say that on the penguin version, too?

[@undersatan5685]

@@johnjosmith42 It does, yes. If I remember correctly it was taken from a review in Time Magazine.

[@josephasghar]

A prescient novel, that gets truer by the day. Laughter in the dark, as the sleeve note review puts it...

[@Pianomaster26]

found Amis when reading Hitch 22, Hitch said money was the greatest novels of the 80s. Bought it and am reading it, it's pretty great. they actually went to a brothel for research for the scene in the book lol

[@louduva9849]

'Research'.

[@thomastownend6308]

Germaine Greer was fit back in the day

[@jat2654]

Search google for germaine greer nude. She ain't that pretty. Tall and gangly. Probably why she became a feminist. Jealous of other women

[@TomorrowWeLive]

You into grannies then

[@baronmeduse]

@@TomorrowWeLive 'back in the day'.

[@mrdankhimself]

I’ve been listening to Money on Audible and am on the final chapter. I’m gonna miss John Self.

[@markxist]

RIP Mel

[@gravlaxbob355]

I haven't read Money (yet) but i finished reading "Inside story" 3 weeks ago, just few days before he passed away. No sense to make out of it really but I was triggered into it by Geoff Dyer's latest "The last days of Roger Federer", a pretty good book, just as I was retiring from work myself (a nobody). Now I think I should turn back to Hitchens's memoirs.

[@sambar0986]

It's from a BBC documentary broadcast about the same time i uploaded this video, i can't remember the name of it though.

[@markxist]

They've made it mate, about 3 yrs ago now. Nick Frost played John Self

[@MrBz123wee]

Exactly where I got it from as well,

[@orbiterlover]

I love his point about the world getting cumulatively worse, but not necessary any worse than it has been. Is there a way I could sample this in a documentary I'm taking about the subject of nostalgia? Who owns it? Thank you so much in advance.

[@sambar0986]

The BBC owns it.

[@TheCheweeRevolutions]

Did they just film that one scene or is that an excerpt from a whole film?

[@luba1441]

Where is this interview from/where can I watch the whole thing?

[@chilledtorsion]

did you get anywhere with this?

[@ravecrab]

It's from a 1984 episode of Bookmark: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0145ql3

[@OliverCox]

Is this part of a larger piece? Any idea where I can find the rest?

[@lukasdonald1639]

He really reminds me of Blixa Bargeld of Einstürzende Neubauten - not just looks but mannerisms. I wonder if either inspired the other.

[@darkroomxvii]

written 1981, probably published 82 and its set in 81

[@nikneugebauer]

from page 174 in Money! (in the middle..... )

[@MarkandJeremy]

Where's the clip from?

[@cryptotharg7400]

Yob's Beanery, for the WIN!

[@markxist]

I didn't mind the adaptation too much but compared to the book it was rubbish. I love the book, one of my all time favourites. And yes, Mel playing Self in the 80s would have been brilliant. Wonder if they could have persuaded Kirk Douglas to play himself, I mean Lorne Guyland? ;P

[@Verboten-xn4rx]

The Killer line talking to Self as the film scam implodes Lorne says : Slick I'm 45. 😂

[@mookie2637]

I doubt it. Didn't Douglas threaten to sue? I think they settled out of court, with no love lost.

[@Broatch6]

consistently malevolent. hilariously entertaining. endlessly educational. every sentence upstages everything Germaine Greer ever said or more boringly wrote. which is why She's so pissed off with Money and it shows

[@mysparerib]

@andrbroo Yes

[@misfit2022]

If Sir Martin thought 1984 was a “great convulsion of stupidity happening in the world mostly to do with television.” I wonder what he thought of Tik Tok and the 2020’s. I imagine not very favourably.

[@Vmvmvmvmvn]

What is the name of this show?

[@freakyfadge]

When literature was about human beings, not disappearing up your own arse

[@TomthatiscalledTom]

If only they'd adapted Money in the 1980s before the mandarins of public broadcasting took one look at Rupert Murdoch's revenue and concluded we were all cretins and must be fed pap. Mel Smith would have been great as Self. Last year's BBC adaptation was gick

[@teeniebeenie8774]

all that smarts, yet they cant give up cigs, eve tho their teeth rot....

[@sambar0986]

Probably 1984.

[@theunpossiblefile]

Money's narrator John "Self" meeting Martin Amis in the book: How does Martin Amis' other "self" describe Martin Ames? "He had a glass of wine, and a cigarette - also a book, a paperback. It looked quite serious. So did he, in a way. Small, compact, wears his rug fairly long...He looked up at me with a flash of paranoia, unusual in its candour, It's bluntness. I don't blame him in this pub. It's full of turks, nutters, martians. The foreigners around here. I know they don't speak English - okay, but do they even speak Earthling? They speak stereo, radio crackle, interference. They speak sonar, bat-chirrup, pterodactylelse, fish-purr...' 'Well, see you around, Martin'. 'No doubt.' 'What's that mean?' I didn't much like his superior tone, come to think of it, or his tan, or his book. Or the way he stares at me in the street. 'Mean?' he said. 'What do you think it means?' 'You calling me a c...? 'What?' 'You calling me a c...? 'You're mistaken.'

[@theunpossiblefile]

+theunpossiblefile - and "they" frequently donot speak Earthling. Two girls were talking behind me in a Whole Foods. I try to listen. They were not speaking pigeon English. They were speaking a combination of English, and evangelical call and response tongues. I pick out two words in ten. The rest really is in bat-chirrup. I was so amazed I never thought to turn on the mike in my I-pad and record. If I had what would I have heard? Radio e-interference or air or words suddenly becoming English recognizable? This wasn't two people mixing 3-4 languages or a joke. This was an actual case of people opening up their mouths with individual words coming out that didn't fit human language. Exactly like the animatronic "hyper+" girl in the movie Tomorrowland. Or the "double-plus ungood" from Orwell's 1984. In fact it was.

[@Maryann-zg9pw]

Are you sure that he's that writer, he looked differently in other vids.

[@Verboten-xn4rx]

First half of Money a dose of the flu 2nd half total page turner as the central character is destroyed. Trust Greer to be the most perceptive. BBC got rid of its late night review of ( culture) slot a long time ago.... then people got rid of the BBC. The younger Amis a lot more cocky than his older bore coterie of Jew luvers and has been lefties - didn't say much for his culture - but was good money. Janus face Martin. RIP. Houellebecq is the superior novelist.

[@cryptotharg7400]

God help me, but I loathe, and despise, Germaine Greer.

[@andrbroo]

Is he pronouncing nadir incorrectly?

[@jat2654]

Yes

[@vindolanda6974]

Yes he is. I think Americans pronounce it differently.

[@mcleanedwards7748]

Distortions and distempers