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"The English language bows deeper to Amis than anyone else." The Daily Telegraph (UK) A master not only of fiction but also of fiercely controversial political engagement, Martin Amis here gathers fourteen pieces that constitute an evolving, provocative and insightful examination of the most momentous event of our time. At the heart of this collection is the long essay "Terror and Boredom," an unsparing analysis of Islamic fundamentalism and the West's flummoxed response to it, while other pieces address the invasion of Iraq, the realities of Iran and Tony Blair's pallid departure from Downing Street. Amis's reviews of pertinent books and films, from The Looming Tower to United 93, provide a wide-ranging survey of other responses to these calamitous issues, which are further explored in two short stories: "The Last Days of Mohammed Atta," and "In the Palace of the End," narrated by a Middle Eastern tyrant's double whose duties include epic lovemaking, grotesque torture and the duplication on his own body of the injuries sustained by his alter ego in constant assassination attempts. Whether lambasted for his refusal to kowtow to Muslim pieties or hailed for his blunt common sense, Amis is indisputably a great pleasure to read-informed, elegant, surprising-and this collection a resounding contemplation of the relentless, manifold dangers we suddenly find ourselves living with.… (más)
"It was the advent of the second plane, sharking in low over the Statue of Liberty: that was the defining moment. Until then, America thought she was witnessing nothing more serious than the worst aviation disaster in history; now she had a sense of the fantastic vehemence ranged against her." (pg. 3)
From its opening lines, novelist Martin Amis' collection of essays and stories is concerned with the sensory experience and conceptual challenges of September 11, 2001, and with unpicking its sheer unfathomability. In tackling such a difficult topic, Amis is remarkably deft, steering away from every potential pitfall of mawkishness, polemic or unseemliness. Even in the short story 'The Last Days of Muhammad Atta', told from the perspective of one of the hijackers, he never submits to that false panacea of moral relativism into which so many of his peers sunk, and continue to wallow.
Indeed, Amis' surety only reminds you that there has been an alarming deficiency of quality cultural responses to this era-defining event, and when he laments on how the middle ground has moved over the years (pg. 198), it can be sobering to admit (there is an unremarked but ironical context in that the earlier pieces are published in the Guardian but the later ones in the Times, even though the author's outlook remains fundamentally the same). It makes you cherish anything that is genuinely trying to parse the events of that day, as opposed to the deluge of cant and emotiveness which colours most of our cultural discussion.
The essays and stories here are very readable, even when talking about impossibly harsh realities (when, for example, he asks in a review of the film United 93, was the last time you saw a commercial flight without any children on it?). Their conceptual lucidity and political sobriety (traits Amis shared with his good friend Christopher Hitchens) leads you to wonder if perhaps one of the greatest losses to our culture in the post-9/11 period has been the eclipse of the tough-minded old-school liberal lefties. Their hair-trigger-sensitive, identity-driven pseudo-academic heirs, the 'woke' progressive posturers, serve only to hammer home the defeat of that Tuesday morning again and again in their increasingly petty ways. In the afore-mentioned short story (pg. 121), Amis reproduces the recording of Muhammad Atta as he took command of the plane that he would soon pilot into the North Tower. "We have some planes," he says, to keep the worried passengers contained. They did not know the reality of the new world. They did not have the second plane; indeed, they had not yet experienced the first. "Just stay quiet, and you'll be okay." It was wrong then and it is wrong now. ( )
This volume is a collection of essays and short stories written in response to the 2001 terrorist attacks. Amis, a novelist and outspoken critic of radical Islam, addresses controversial aspects of religion and war. The collection does include "Bush in Yes-Man's Land," "The Wrong War," as well as two stores, including "The Last Days of Muhammad Atta." The essays are presented to us in the same order they were originally first published and do include some violence. ( )
At times this book cuts close to the bone, but this collection of articles and short stories is measured look back at the events leading to September the 11th and its aftermath. ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
To Delilah, Louis, Jacob, Fernanda, and Clio
Primeras palabras
Citas
Últimas palabras
Aviso de desambiguación
Editores de la editorial
Blurbistas
Idioma original
DDC/MDS Canónico
LCC canónico
▾Referencias
Referencias a esta obra en fuentes externas.
Wikipedia en inglés
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▾Descripciones del libro
"The English language bows deeper to Amis than anyone else." The Daily Telegraph (UK) A master not only of fiction but also of fiercely controversial political engagement, Martin Amis here gathers fourteen pieces that constitute an evolving, provocative and insightful examination of the most momentous event of our time. At the heart of this collection is the long essay "Terror and Boredom," an unsparing analysis of Islamic fundamentalism and the West's flummoxed response to it, while other pieces address the invasion of Iraq, the realities of Iran and Tony Blair's pallid departure from Downing Street. Amis's reviews of pertinent books and films, from The Looming Tower to United 93, provide a wide-ranging survey of other responses to these calamitous issues, which are further explored in two short stories: "The Last Days of Mohammed Atta," and "In the Palace of the End," narrated by a Middle Eastern tyrant's double whose duties include epic lovemaking, grotesque torture and the duplication on his own body of the injuries sustained by his alter ego in constant assassination attempts. Whether lambasted for his refusal to kowtow to Muslim pieties or hailed for his blunt common sense, Amis is indisputably a great pleasure to read-informed, elegant, surprising-and this collection a resounding contemplation of the relentless, manifold dangers we suddenly find ourselves living with.
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Descripción del libro
na semana después del 11-S, el 18 de septiembre de 2001, el escritor y ensayista Martin Amis culminaba un artículo sobre sus impresiones de los trágicos ataques con estas palabras:
Nuestro mejor destino, como cohabitantes planetarios, es el desarrollo de lo que ha sido llamado “conciencia de especie” – algo por encima y más allá de nacionalismos, bloques, religiones, etnias. A lo largo de esta semana de incrédula desgracia he intentado aplicar este tipo de conciencia y de sensibilidad. Pensando en las víctimas, los perpetradores y el futuro cercano he sentido el dolor de la especie, la vergüenza de la especie, y el miedo de la especie.
Sin embargo, es el mismo Martin Amis quien cinco años después aseguraba en una entrevista a The Guardian:
La comunidad musulmana tendrá que sufrir hasta que ponga su casa en orden (...) No dejarles viajar, deportación… Un trato discriminatorio hasta que duela a toda la comunidad y empiecen a ponerse firmes con sus hijos.
En esa misma entrevista Amis hacía suyas las más extremistas teorías xenófobas según las cuáles los musulmanes acabarán con la civilización occidental debido a su alto índice demográfico y la determinación en defender sus valores radicales. ¿Cómo un autor puede dar un giro tan brusco a su pensamiento? Los que estén interesados en descubrirlo podrán hacerlo en El segundo avión, el libro que recoge los artículos sobre el 11-S publicados por Amis entre el 2001 y el 2007. Anunciate aquí Click here to find out more!
Lo de ir de provocador no es una novedad para Amis, es incluso su especialidad. Sin embargo siempre se le ha considerado un provocador útil y constructivo, un demoledor de prejuicios. Pero al Amis de después del 11-S los prejuicios parecen habérsele quedado grandes, como si no supiera manejarlos sin enredarse en ellos. Como disculpa de sus palabras argumentó que se acababa de descubrir un complot para hacer estallar aviones sobre el Atlántico, y que sus hijos hacían esa ruta. Tan comprensible es esto como chocante oirle clamar venganza sobre toda “la comunidad musulmana”.
A Amis se le acusa de que su libro está “voluntariamente desinformado” y que su estilo, siempre de un virtuosismo impecable, se sostiene sobre pobres argumentos. Amis se defiende diciendo que su lucha es la de la razón contra el dogmatismo y que no es racista: Si fuesen protestantes anglosajones quienes hacen esas cosas, yo mismo estaría dispuesto a aceptar que se me impusieran restricciones.
Me hace gracia este último argumento. Quizás me equivoque pero no me consta que Martin Amis, en ninguno de sus viajes a Estados Unidos, haya exigido a la policía que le investigue, registre y/o encarcele preventivamente como iniciativa para acabar con el Ku-Klux-Klan. Porque me da la sensación que esta gente es a los “protestantes anglosajones” lo que Al Qaeda a la “comunidad musulmana”.
Insiste Martin Amis en que alguien tiene que decir las cosas claras, aunque sean impopulares. Y tiene razón. Ahí va una verdad inconveniente: casi todas nuestras reacciones al terrorismo las dicta el miedo. ¿Quién no ha sufrido la angustia de temer por un ser querido o por la propia vida tomando un avión, un tren o el metro? El miedo es también furia e impotencia. Es lo que me parece ver en esta faceta de Amis, la bravuconería del gigante de pies de barro.
Via | Yahoo! Noticias, The Guardian Más Información | ‘Fear and loathing’ por Martin Amis (en inglés)
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From its opening lines, novelist Martin Amis' collection of essays and stories is concerned with the sensory experience and conceptual challenges of September 11, 2001, and with unpicking its sheer unfathomability. In tackling such a difficult topic, Amis is remarkably deft, steering away from every potential pitfall of mawkishness, polemic or unseemliness. Even in the short story 'The Last Days of Muhammad Atta', told from the perspective of one of the hijackers, he never submits to that false panacea of moral relativism into which so many of his peers sunk, and continue to wallow.
Indeed, Amis' surety only reminds you that there has been an alarming deficiency of quality cultural responses to this era-defining event, and when he laments on how the middle ground has moved over the years (pg. 198), it can be sobering to admit (there is an unremarked but ironical context in that the earlier pieces are published in the Guardian but the later ones in the Times, even though the author's outlook remains fundamentally the same). It makes you cherish anything that is genuinely trying to parse the events of that day, as opposed to the deluge of cant and emotiveness which colours most of our cultural discussion.
The essays and stories here are very readable, even when talking about impossibly harsh realities (when, for example, he asks in a review of the film United 93, was the last time you saw a commercial flight without any children on it?). Their conceptual lucidity and political sobriety (traits Amis shared with his good friend Christopher Hitchens) leads you to wonder if perhaps one of the greatest losses to our culture in the post-9/11 period has been the eclipse of the tough-minded old-school liberal lefties. Their hair-trigger-sensitive, identity-driven pseudo-academic heirs, the 'woke' progressive posturers, serve only to hammer home the defeat of that Tuesday morning again and again in their increasingly petty ways. In the afore-mentioned short story (pg. 121), Amis reproduces the recording of Muhammad Atta as he took command of the plane that he would soon pilot into the North Tower. "We have some planes," he says, to keep the worried passengers contained. They did not know the reality of the new world. They did not have the second plane; indeed, they had not yet experienced the first. "Just stay quiet, and you'll be okay." It was wrong then and it is wrong now. (