It's becoming clearer and clearer to me that the world is there to be celebrated by writers, and in fact this is what all the good ones do, and that the great fashion for gloom and grimness was in fact a false path that certain writers took, I think in response to the horrors of the first half of the twentieth century.
Interpretation
Writers should celebrate the world rather than focus on its darkness and despair.
In this quote, Martin Amis reflects on the role of writers in society, suggesting that their job is to recognize and celebrate the beauty and complexity of the world rather than succumbing to a trend of gloom that emerged in response to historical horrors. He advocates for a positive outlook that acknowledges the good amidst the struggles of life, arguing that this approach is the hallmark of truly great writers.
In practice
During a literary festival, one might say this quote to emphasize the importance of a positive perspective in literature.
Oh Christ, the exhaustion of not knowing anything. It's so tiring and hard on the nerves. It really takes it out of you, not knowing anything. You're given comedy and miss all the jokes. Every hour you get weaker. Sometimes, as I sit alone in my flat in London and stare at the window, I think how dismal it is, how heavy, to watch the rain and not know why it falls.
Sometimes I feel that life is passing me by, not slowly either, but with ropes of steam and spark - spattered wheels and a hoarse roar of power or terror. It's passing, yet I'm the one who's doing all the moving.
You know how it is when two souls meet in a burst of ecstatic volubility, with hearts tickling to hear and to tell, to know everything, to reveal everything, the shared reverence for the other's otherness, a feeling of solitude radiantly snapped by full *contact* - all that?
All my adult life I have been searching for the right adjective to describe my father's peculiarly aggressive comic style. I recently settled on 'defamatory.'
Love is an abstract noun, something nebulous. And yet love turns out to be the only part of us that is solid, as the world turns upside down and the screen goes black.
Jane was my wicked stepmother: she was generous, affectionate and resourceful; she salvaged my schooling and I owe her an unknowable debt for that. One flaw: sometimes, early on, she would tell me things designed to make me think less of my mother, and I would wave her away, saying, Jane, this just backfires and makes me think less of you.
I have always noticed that in portraits of really great writers the mouth is always firmly closed.
Some people become cops because they want to make the world a better place. Some people become vandals because they want to make the world a better looking place.
Imagine a world alive with incomprehensible objects, and shimmering with an endless variety of movement and innumerable gradations of colour. Imagine a world before the 'beginning was the word.'
Everyone thinks these are self-portraits but they aren't meant to be. I just use myself as a model because I know I can push myself to extremes, make each shot as ugly or goofy or silly as possible.
The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.
The tango is a direct expression of something that poets have often tried to state in words: the belief that a fight may be a celebration.
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