Martin Amis's Nuclear Fiction
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UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-1995 Living the bomb: Martin Amis's nuclear fiction Rebecca L Bostick University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Bostick, Rebecca L, "Living the bomb: Martin Amis's nuclear fiction" (1995). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 571. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/1fxy-go1t This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. 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Bostick A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in English Department of English University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 1996 UMI Number: 1380495 Copyright 1996 by Bostick, Rebecca L. All rights reserved. UMI Microform 1380495 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ®1996 Rebecca L. Bostick All Rights Reserved The Thesis of Rebecca L. Bostick for the degree of Master of Arts in English is approved. Chairperson, (Beth Rosenberg, Ph.D. ,ri) /n 51 l Examining Qkjrtimitliae Member, Evelyn Gajowski, Ph.D. £ ' / /tu t— Examining Committee Member, Darlene Unrue, Ph.D. _______ I___^ _____________________________________ Graduate faculty Repinesentative, Elspeth Whitney, Ph. D . Jk*2- Interim Dean <#f the Graduate College,Cheryl L. Bowles, Ed.D. University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 1996 Abstract Living the Bomb: Martin Amis's Nuclear Fiction examines the importance of nuclear issues in Amis's fiction, particularly Einstein's Monsters and London Fields. Critical attention is given to Amis's concept of "thinkability," his political agenda and the effect of nuclear weaponry on his literature. Amis's nuclear symbolism is examined and the corrupt effect of nuclear weapons on our powers of creation (literal and artistic) and the environment is illustrated. Finally, Amis's anti-nuclear philosophy is linked with feminism: both espouse pacifism and a reinventing of gender roles in a post-nuclear world. Table of Contents Abstract.................................................. iii Acknowledgements......................................... v Chapter 1 Introduction.................................. 1 Chapter 2 Thinkability.................................. 10 Chapter 3 Eschatology................................... 2 8 Chapter 4 Creation...................................... 44 Chapter 5 The Punishing Planet.......................... 59 Chapter 6 Fathers and Feminism.......................... 74 Chapter 7 Conclusion.................................... 84 Works Consulted 8 8 iv Acknowledgements For the origins of this thesis, I am indebted to Professor Emeritus, A. Wilber Stevens, who once encouraged me to write about Amis, not Kingsley, but "the naughty one." I also wish to thank Beth Rosenberg for her support, guidance, and baptism in methodology; Evelyn Gajowski for continuous encouragement to defy limitations of thought; Darlene Unrue for her research techniques and inspiration to confront my subject; and Elspeth Whitney for valuable historical perspective. v Chapter One Introduction Consideration of Martin Amis's nuclear themes may be overdue, but it is particularly apt now, just after the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and later, Nagasaki. Society has begun its first consideration of these events in retrospective light. This year, the first apologies were made to Japan for the horrors of the atomic attacks in World War II. This year, despite much protest, the Enola Gay was put on display at the Smithsonian alongside a historical summary of its role in the war. This year, nuclear issues were paid attention; their role in history and impact on society is finally becoming recognized. Because Martin Amis's work has been written under the shadow of such events, it is appropriate that this thesis examining his nuclear literature should follow such an anniversary. Amis has said he lived for four peaceful days before nuclear weapons came to his consciousness, then the bomb dropped in Russia, "deterrence was in place" and nothing has been the same since. Amis is right. But if we reflect, as he has in his fiction and essays, with one foot in the disarmed future, and another steeped in the radioactive past, we may make sense not only of Amis, but of 1 2 our own nuclear lives. While it is important to separate Amis's techniques from his moral commentary, both work to support his anti- nuclear stance. Amis's mood is postmodern and pessimistic, with disconnected narratives, self reflexive authorial intrusion, a multiplicity of voices and views, and a final exhaustive thrust toward destruction in any form. Yet Amis stops short of excessively difficult postmodern conventions. Polyphonous narratives overlap, often repeating the same episode from a differing point of view and thus, claiming plural realities. Though often linked with Nabokov, Joyce, and Flaubert, his material is ultimately more accessible in part because he favors understatement rather than overstatement. Instead of relying on elaborate techniques, Amis uses metaphor and allegory to illustrate his points and keep the reader engaged. Certain postmodern images become characters themselves. Critics avow that Amis cannot write a sentence without extending his view to the sky, the clouds, the universe and galaxies, but rather than authorial indulgence, in cases such as these the images are playing a role. Amis rarely mentions the Bomb, but we feel its presence nevertheless. The landscapes become supporting characters, cities lend persona and moral standard to Amis's thoroughly corrupt settings. Without the threat of nuclear weapons, we might say Amis's books breathe with life, but due to the inevitable power of destruction he fixates upon, 3 we must confirm that all is dying: not just characters, but the world they, we as readers, and Amis himself inhabits. Martin Amis does not write about the Bomb. Nor does he write compulsively and politically about nuclear weapons. Though critics have lambasted his nuclear-themed short story collection, Einstein's Monsters. he does not objectify the Bomb to use as a plot construction or vehicle for political posturing. Instead, Amis shows us how nuclear weapons are already at their sinister work. While we live in their sphere of possible annihilation, while we breathe the toxic air they emit, while we destroy one another and ourselves with our damaged nuclear psyche, we become nuclear beings. According to Amis, "we're all unwittingly and glandularly thinking about the nuclear threat" (qtd. in Michener 110). Its effect on our psyche, if not obvious, takes place at a deeper, primitively conscious level. The existence of the Bomb has put us in this state, but a nuclear explosion is unnecessary for mankind's eventual destruction. Amis convinces us we hold the power of such weapons in ourselves. Yet this nuclear logic is dangerously circular. Without the Bomb, this life-denigrating consciousness would not exist. Because of the Bomb, our "moral contracts are inevitably weakened" (Einstein's Monsters 7). The weapon which was invented to enforce peace accomplishes its goal through its potential for annihilation. And thus the Bomb has destroyed us, not with its tonnage of explosives, but with its threat. 4 There need be no Hiroshima for nuclear