Martin Amis, "The Rub of Time"

Martin Amis discusses his collection, "The Rub of Time", at a Politics and Prose event at Sidwell Friends Meeting House in Washington, DC on 3/14/18.
For more than thirty years, Martin Amis has turned his keen intellect and unrivaled prose loose on an astonishing range of topics. Now, at last, these incomparable essays have been gathered together in The Rub of Time. Here is Amis at the 2011 GOP Iowa Caucus, where, squeezed between "windbreakers and woolly hats," he pores over The Ron Paul Family Cookbook and laments the absence of "our Banquo," Herman Cain. He writes about finally confronting the effects of aging on his athletic prowess. He revisits, time and time again, the worlds of Bellow and Nabokov, his "twin peaks," masters who have obsessed and inspired him. Brilliant, incisive, and savagely funny, The Rub of Time is a vital addition to any Amis fans bookshelf, and the perfect primer for readers discovering his fierce and tremendous journalistic talents for the first time.
Amis is in conversation with Tope Folarin, a writer based in Washington D.C. His debut novel, The Proximity of Distance, is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster.
www.politics-prose.com/book/9...
Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics and Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics and Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online. Visit them on the web at www.politics-prose.com/
Produced by Tom Warren

[@lostboy8345]

If you want to read a fantastic book of his, pick up "Koba the Dread" about Stalin. The writing in the book is beautiful, how he explains the misery of communism under Stalin is as unique as any writer on the subject.

[@sonjak8265]

In that book, Amis is confronting his father, a much better writer, who used to be a communist.

[@d.mavridopoulos66]

I am addicted to his prose style, and always revisit his non-fictional writings(Koba among them). In the novels I've tried, I felt he was trying hard to show off, and I thought most of the characters were downright odious. Although far from a feminist (I mean the ideology in its current form), the women in his fiction seem to me, to be stripped of even an elementary character (let alone a realistic one), and solely there to be appreciated for their (usually spectacular) bodies. But let's not be ungrateful to someone who wrote so many brilliantly phrased essays, and some fine memoirs.

[@jonharrison9222]

@@sonjak8265 And Kingsley Amis ended up a drink-sodden blimp and so far-right it’s a minor miracle he never washed up in the BNP. And I don’t think most people actually did need MA to tell them that Stalin was a genocidal dictator and the Soviet Union a continent-sized prison. Just me.

[@sonjak8265]

@@jonharrison9222 What is BNP?

[@chokingmessiah]

Martin Amis is amazing. Love the guy.

[@rickpandolfi7860]

I’ll never get over Mr Amis or his loss.

[@ramdularsingh1435]

Martin is a brilliant author of our time. He has an amazing substance of writing !

[@geoffreynhill2833]

Well worth watching. ✔ And good advice on writing.

[@josephyoung6749]

Great video, I really enjoyed this discussion.

[@ukrandr]

I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation as I am just about through The Rub of Time. To be clear about one thing, we are all agnostics. We are born agnostics (and atheists) and will certainly die as agnostics. Between birth and death depends a great deal on one's credulity.

[@josephyoung6749]

Despite his age (which I feel is the underlying topic of this whole video) I would say Amis is really sharp here, and actually some of the non-orthogonality of his anecdotes and stories seem to animate the discussion rather than to diminish it.

[@Martin_Whiteside]

@Joseph Young...When you write "non-orthogonality", do you mean "extraneous" and "beside the point". I never heard the word before, hence my question.

[@josephyoung6749]

@@Martin_Whiteside I mean the x, y and z axis of these little time-tested preachments don't extend independently of one another, but exert a relativistic gravity beyond the ken of the conversational Cartesian cartography typical of harsh, youthful rigor, resulting in a more spherical, quasi-hypercubic treatment of the topics covered, instead of the normal axonometric observation of realities that are not permitted to distort or influence one another. I'm so happy I could clarify this for you hehehe.

[@MartianManhunter1987]

Are you Alan Sokal in disguise taking the piss again? Lol

[@lizannewhitlow1085]

My desert isle author.

[@pezushka]

tough to seem him become elderly, the same is happening with my own father, the process seems to accelerate once it gets going.

[@josephyoung6749]

I also felt the discussion revolved more around his personhood rather than the literary sphere, and even delving directly into the topic of his aging process. What might be the most important part of that I would say, based on watching this video, is that he has entered the part of his life where instead of creating new assertions, he will be re-emphasizing assertions he has already made, and reminding all of us that there are still other ways of living.

[@MrTravelWriter]

The greatest living writer in the English language.

[@regmunday8354]

Nope, not after 'Yellow Dog'.

[@daveerwin6981]

Make that the greatest prose stylist.

Do not go OTT!!!!

[@wgaule]

@@johnmulligan455 Seems like your responding to a misreading. He didn't actually say literary writer.

[@wgaule]

​@@johnmulligan455 You're a fool, is my point.

[@treborob]

Big fan of Amis...curiously, here he looks a bit like a priest due to the white shirt collar and black jacket...

[@carringtonlefayette8644]

The universe was showing off when Martin was made.

[@dr.amitabhamukherjee3601]

You have put it beautifully! Amis himself or his literary idol Bellow would've been proud of this sentence.

[@2beokisgr8]

3:15 start

[@Broatch6]

if U were to be questioned about Ur job - what U do for a living - sooner or later U'd start talking crap. I know I would. it wud only be a matter of time till we said sumthing stupid. but I've listened to lots of Martin Amis interviews - hours and hours - and never once has he said anything that's stupid - or even remotely stupid. I don't know anyone like that. P.S its said he's arrogant. I don't mind someone being arrogant so long as they've got something to be arrogant about. P.P.S he's got trump down to a t.

[@johnpelosi4117]

I very much like your comment, it has truth and a good humor, thank you.

[@josephyoung6749]

You're right there. But you know, being literate and not devoid of mental presence is certainly not unusual. It's actually a virtue that anyone can aspire to.

[@dankhan9088]

writers write about characters who may or may not be fictitious.

[@johnpelosi4117]

Martin Amis makes a mistake in assuming that Atheism is an assertion that there is no "God", Atheism is disbelief in the quite various assertions that a "God" exists, which is quite different. Atheism addresses a proposition of belief, whereas the relatively new term Agnosticism addresses knowledge or specifically declaring lack of, it is clear that a gulf exists between belief and knowledge. What is fascinating though is to imagine the discussions Amis and Hitchens had upon this topic deep in their cups!

[@Broatch6]

the grandeur of the Universe shud make anyone careful of saying there's no God...if we've got any more than 2 brain cells ..if we've got any more than a synapse....we shud be careful NOT to be agnostic

[@johnpelosi4117]

Really? Apparently you did not read the original comment, Atheism is Not an assertion that there is no God, it is disbelief in the various assertions that a God exists, for there is NO evidence to support any such belief. I ask you "The Glamazon Club" to provide any evidence for your notion about such a "Being". The "Grandeur of the Universe" is a human perception, it does not indicate any supernatural component, it is a natural human reaction to that which is.

[@Broatch6]

most agnostics wud agree that the kind of God envisaged by all the organized religions does not exist....it shud be painfully obvious to anyone such a Being is a man-made construct but what gives pause for thought is the mathematics and the physics of the Universe. its all just a little too perfect and the perfection suggests to some the possiblity of Intelligent Design...theres no evidence that Intelligent Design is out there but nor is there any evidence its NOT out there...parallel universes - the multiverse - may just be a mathematical concept for now...but a flea living in a dog's coat will be pretty sure its got everything worked out

[@Velvet0Starship2013]

"the grandeur of the Universe" ...compared to what? Your sense of its "grandeur" is a subjective measure of very little relevance to the question of whether the "grandeur" was/is intentional. Even if the entire Universe consisted of nothing but evenly-spaced socks, the question (fluke or not?) would remain unanswered by your estimation of the beauty of socks.

[@Velvet0Starship2013]

"its all just a little too perfect" again: compared to what? Find us that Universe lacking in "grandeur" and "perfection" so we can make a study of the differences between two versions of Existence, teasing out the meaning of the gaps. Otherwise: your value-packed critiques are meaningless (and all too forgiveably human).

[@PK-re3lu]

Always amusing to hear middle and lightweights criticise Joyce!

[@ukrandr]

Calling Nabokov a lightweight are you? Get real.

[@Velvet0Starship2013]

"Rub", Mart? More like a sandblasting, innit... ? Any fan of Martin's “Experience” will remember his father, Kingsley’s, character, in that book, as a craggily-lovable figure of fun and foibles. But Kingsley is about 70, in this documentary: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGKzeJR4ebtlpLs ... and Martin is two years shy of that now; does Martin come off any better, in contemporary interviews, than Kingsley does in that clip? Kingsley could almost be said to have a “spring in his step” in comparison. Who would have thought it, reading “Experience”, back in the innocent year of 2000? Well, it’s just another cautionary tale about Time, isn’t it? Time and its accelerants, the Booze and Grief, both of which (come on) Mart has been liberally doused with. Can anyone imagine this new Old Mart pulling one of these: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Znm9paZuf8aZjZI&t=525 PS I've got this left-leaning, slightly sex-obsessed Lit Blog, written from the perspective of a straight male in his early-late middle age, if you'd care to stop by... berlin8berlin.wordpress.com/

[@jonharrison9222]

Idi Amin was always laughing and joking. I don’t think that made him a terribly competent ruler, somehow.

[@anthonyperry1933]

Martins health is in decline.

[@MOOSEDOWNUNDER]

all our healths are in decline its called ageing old bean.

[@matthewhopkins4664]

I'll say

[@dexblue]

A bit of common courtesy is called for, Martin; you don't waltz into a country other than your own and drop your political opinion with a sneering reference to the country's president. And his audience swallows and chuckles guffaws along with him. There is no other country in the world that would put up with this; America delights in this kind of abasement; Martin knows that he can say anything in his upper class British accent and Americans will thrill; we, Americans are still cowed colonials ...

[@anshuecon]

It's called being a liberal democracy. You can waltz into India and we would love it if you made similar remarks about Modi, you can go to London and make similar remarks about Boris Johnson, or to Tel Aviv and sneer at Netanyahu. You want your country to be one where all visitors kiss the leader's ring? That's called North Korea.

[@dexblue]

@@anshuecon You obviously, like Americans. still have the colonial mentality of abasement before the insulting colonizer; talk about kissing rings, or maybe other fleshly parts ... it's called good manners or common courtesy ... sometimes courtesy is revolutionary ... you don't wipe your feet on the welcome mat of another country ... well, maybe you do .....

[@anshuecon]

@@dexblue Lol I'll let the racist comments slide, but you can do the same in London or Paris. Just land there and talk smack about Boris or Macron. It's called being a democracy. You want to live in a country where visitors CANNOT criticise the leadership? Try China or North Korea.

[@dexblue]

@@anshuecon I'll let the accusations of racism slide - when you don't have ideas or arguments on your side, just cry out "racist!". Common courtesy requires restraint and character, talking s--- about the leaders of a free country whose hospitality you enjoy does not ... it is easy. So, you prove my point ... go to China and N Korea and insult their leaders ... do something hard ... prove your mettle ....

[@zeppelin1qaz]

He lives (lived) in America he loved the place. He left England some years ago. And he's been writing about it since 1975.

[@thebetterwave1625]

I have read a few of his books and I find him an interesting man but I totally disagree with his assessment on the American voter, Trump and other observations that he believes to be true about America. In a word he is a snob, his contempt for what he describes as American idiots that voted for Trump. He has failed to assess the state of affairs in the United States under the world at large. He's not a humble man, So it is a little bit comical and entertaining to have him describe his views on Trump. 😉 I think there's so much that he misses because, he is without a belief in God. I know that's a very general statement, but I do see that at the root of it.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Nothing unusual . The Guardian reading liberal left in Britain despise America ( and Americans ) even more than they hate the Taliban .

[@Sharvalgon]

So because he doesn't believe in a deity, THAT'S the reason you think his political views are wrong? 😆

[@stephenhampshire202]

What a lot of nonsense Martin! What do we do about misogyny in Shakespeare/Bellow? We downgrade their work from 5 stars to 4 as a overall judgement about the quality of the literature. Misogony diminishes the quality of literature. And no Martin, wrong Martin to say Bellow certainly writes ABOUT misogony when Herzog is misogonistic which is an entirely different thing. Hitler speaking ABOUT facisn and BEING a facist are two entirely different things. And then horrendous statement Martin, " misogony is a social cultural judgement, not a literary one " - ermmm, a work of literature only exists as a social and cultural act Martin, so now you know. In your slavish defence of Bellow you become a second rate Trump. Good luck selling your next novel to anyone that abhors misogyny.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Obnoxious Tosser with outrageous sense of entitlement . ". Well , yes......but he's an Artist....? "