Greedy (Martin Amis)

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Greedy (original title Money: A Suicide Note ) is a 1984 novel by the British writer Martin Amis . The novel is now considered a classic of 20th century British literature and a high point in the work of Amis. In it, Amis takes a critical look at the material excesses of the late 20th century and addresses the effects on the individual and society. The novel is told from the point of view of the protagonist John Self and is a dramatic monologue, the narrative style of which is based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's notes from the cellar hole .

The American magazine Time chose the novel on their list of the best . The British newspaper The Guardian named him in the list of 1000 novels everyone must read. Robert McCrum names the work in his list of the 100 best English-language novels, also compiled for the Guardian .

The German edition, translated by Elke Schönfeld, was published by Zsolnay Verlag in 1991 .

action

The plot begins in the early summer of 1981. John Self lands by plane in New York, believing that he will soon be directing his first major feature film. He has been one of the beneficiaries of the advertising industry's rise in importance since the 1960s, and became wealthy from a number of controversial television commercials promoting cigarette and alcohol consumption, junk food and soft porn magazines. His most recent successes include a contract with the American film producer Fielding Goodney, for whom Self is to make a film based on his own life story. During six hectic months, Self turns 35, flies back and forth between London and New York, meets Goodney, goes to screen tests, talks to screenwriters and indulges in his inclination to the unrestrained use of sex, alcohol and other drugs .

Few things develop the way Self had planned for themselves. The actors Self has chosen for his film, which he originally wanted to give the title "Good Money", all have problems with their fellow actors and the roles they are intended for. The devout Spunk Davis is said to play a drug dealer, the aging Lorne Guyland, who has always played the indomitable hero so far, is said to let himself be beaten up miserably, the maternal Caduta Massi, who is increasingly unsure of her physical attraction, is said to have a sex scene with Lorne in the film that she loathes privately.

Self's private life is also becoming increasingly confused. His lover Selina Street, who remains in London, cheats on Self with at least two other men. She also ensures that Self ultimately deceives Martina Twain, whom Self has advertised in vain for so long and who ultimately represents the only weak hope that Self will still succeed in changing his life. One of the main characters that Self repeatedly encounters is a Martin Amis. Self hires him to let him revise the script.

Self's fast-paced, consumer-driven life comes to an end when he discovers that Fielding has set a trap for him. The money that should make Self's big movie possible and finance Self's expensive lifestyle doesn't exist. All of the contracts with Fielding that seemed to provide him with a never-ending source of funds ultimately made him liable for the funds. Self remains bankrupt in London after attempting suicide in vain.

Individual aspects of the novel

title

The English original title Money: A Suicide Note (translated money: A suicide suicide note ) makes it clear that the novel is also about the extermination of John Self. Martin Amis writes in his introduction:

“This is a farewell letter. When you've put it aside (and read things like this slowly, looking for clues or hints), John Self will no longer be there. At least that's the plan. With farewell letters, you never know, right? In the planetary totality of all life there are far more farewell letters than suicides. "

In fact, by the end of the novel, John Self will no longer exist. His reality has turned out to be an illusion and carefully constructed vengeance. John Self knows at the end of the novel that his real father is Fat Vince. This makes John aware that his true identity is that of Fat John, Fat Paul's half-brother.

Greedy can be read as a satirical novel about the influence of capitalism on consciousness and self-perception in the western world after the end of the Second World War. James Diedrick points out that with John Self and his excessive life, Amis captured the uninhibited entrepreneurial greed that characterized the 1980s. Martin Amis has otherwise stated about his understanding of money and property:

“I am convinced that money is the central deformity in life. […] It is one of those evils that happily survived its identification as an evil. [...] It's fiction, addiction, and a tacit conspiracy that we've all gotten into. "

In this sense, John Self is the target and victim, who has given up his own free will in order to embrace a materialistic culture in all its excesses. At one point, John Self lists the books that are in his apartment and that all revolve around money, and even explicitly address the deforming effect of money on human character: The Income Tax Leader, The Usurers, Timon of Athens , Consortium, Our mutual friend , Buy-Buy-Buy, Silas Marner , Success !, The indulgence merchant's tale, Confessions of a bailiff, The diamond that was as big as the Ritz, The Amethyst Inheritance. For John Self, however, it is important to note that, except for The Usurers, all of the books come from his past lovers. But it is also important for him to emphasize that he has not read the books.

language

John Self is a first-person narrator who has only a limited vocabulary, who is poorly read, to whom narrative structures are unknown and who is also regularly very drunk and is therefore unable to produce a coherent, logically structured report. As a writer, Martin Amis has set himself very narrow limits so that Gierig remains a credible report. The novel is loosely structured chronologically, but the reader is confronted with a narrator who repeatedly remembers past events, digresses or withholds events when they are too uncomfortable for him as the narrator.

Self's language is simple, the sentences are usually choppy and simply structured, his thoughts regularly revolve exclusively around money and sex:

“Television is one of my main interests, one of my essential skills. My education is also based on video films: diabolism , carnage, soft porn. Once I manage to even think about it, I realize that all of my hobbies tend to be pornographic. The emphasis is clearly on the element of solitary satisfaction. Fast food. Sex shows, space games, slot machines, video messes, nude magazines, alcohol, bars, fights, television, wanking. As for this proliferation, or its exhaustive frequency, I have a suspicion. I need human warmth. And because no one is around, I'll do it myself. At least wanking is free, free, you don't get any cash on it. "

Addressing the reader directly

The direct address the reader is for nearly two centuries used stylistic device. For example, in her novel Jane Eyre (1847), in the first sentence of the last chapter , Charlotte Brontë addresses her reading audience directly with the words “Reader, I married him” . Even Henry Fielding and Laurence Sterne use this stylistic device. Amis goes a step further with this technique and uses it to make the reader an immediate accomplice of Self. As he writes when John Self learns that his eldest and best friend and simultaneous rival for the affection of Selina Street is in custody:

“Mm, it's really nice when someone like you dismounts. Do you know the feeling? That gets you really high, doesn't it? Do not be ashamed, it is not necessary. "

Eike Schönfeld uses the plural here in his translation; In the English original, this is even more direct through the use of "you": Mm, it's so nice when one of your peers goes down. You know the feeling? A real buzz, isn't it? Don't be ashamed, if you can possibly help it. Elsewhere, while having sex with the sex symbol Butch Beausoleil, John Self is sure to fulfill his reader's fantasies too.

“You have already thought of it too, my friend. You too, my angel, if you lean in that direction at all. "

Amis even lets John Self joke with the reader. For example, John Self claims to have slipped his hand under her skirt after a fine dinner with the cultivated Martina Twain.

"Stay calm. I didn't really do it. On the contrary, I behaved doggedly well all evening. You see, I had the perspective. "

1984

Martin Amis' novel was published in 1984 - and indeed the dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell is a recurring motif in the novel. John Self is reading this novel because Martina Twain wants to give him a little education with it. Unlike Winston Smith, the protagonist of the Orwellian novel, Self lives in a free society. However, his responses are no less conditioned than Winston Smith's. Similar to Smith, Self discovers in the course of the plot that he is ultimately trapped. Winston Smith is led to Room 101 at the end of 1984 , where he is threatened with torture and where he loses his last vestiges of freedom and honor. In Amis' novel, the expensive hotel room Fielding Goodney has put him in is also number 101.

Adaptation by the BBC

Greedy was adapted for television by the BBC and shown in May 2010. Nick Frost played John Self, Vincent Kartheiser played his opponent Fielding Goodney, Emma Pierson took on the role of Selina Street and Jerry Hall played Caduta Massi. The television play, whose script was written by Tom Butterworth and Chris Hurford, was shown in two parts.

Trivia

Martin Amis is the son of Kingsley Amis , who is also a well-respected British writer. Both won the Somerset Maugham Award for their respective first work : Kingsley Amis for Glück für Jim , almost two decades later his son for The Rachel Diary . The relationship between Martin and Kingsley Amis was difficult and Kingsley Amis publicly and vehemently attacked his son's work. Martin Amis refrained from responding publicly to his father's attacks, but also noted that his father had actually only read three of his novels and fired the others across the room after twenty or thirty pages. Greedy is one of the novels Kingsley Amis refused to read. Martin Amis commented comparatively calmly:

“Older writers should be hostile to younger writers because the younger writers are sending them an unwelcome message [with their works]. They say: It is no longer like that. It's like that now. "

expenditure

literature

Single receipts

  1. ↑ a b James Diedrick: Understanding Martin Amis . University of South Carolina Press, Columbia 2004, ISBN 1-57003-516-4 . P. 73
  2. ↑ 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read: The Definitive List , accessed July 26, 2014.
  3. ^ Greedy , translated by Eike Schönfeld; dtv, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-423-13147-0 . Foreword by the author.
  4. ↑ James Diedrick: Understanding Martin Amis . University of South Carolina Press, Columbia 2004, ISBN 1-57003-516-4 . P. 77.
  5. ↑ James Diedrick: Understanding Martin Amis . University of South Carolina Press, Columbia 2004, ISBN 1-57003-516-4 . P. 77. The original quote is: “I think money is the central deformity in life. [...] It's one of the evils that has cheerfully survived identification as an evil. [...] it's a fiction, an addiction, and a tacit conspiracy that we have all agreed to go along with. "
  6. ^ Greedy , translated by Eike Schönfeld; dtv, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-423-13147-0 . P. 78.
  7. ↑ The Indulgence Man's Tale is one of the stories from the Canterbury Tales
  8. ↑ Short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  9. ^ Greedy , translated by Eike Schönfeld; dtv, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-423-13147-0 , p. 79.
  10. ^ John Mullan: How Novels Work . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006, ISBN 978-0-19-928178-7 , p. 62.
  11. ^ Greedy , translated by Eike Schönfeld; dtv, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-423-13147-0 , p. 148 and p. 149.
  12. ^ Greedy , translated by Eike Schönfeld; dtv, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-423-13147-0 , p. 301.
  13. ^ Greedy , translated by Eike Schönfeld; dtv, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-423-13147-0 , p. 238.
  14. ↑ a b John Plunkett: Nick Frost to star in BBC2 adaptation of Martin Amis's Money . In: The Guardian , November 11, 2009. 
  15. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/11_november/11/money.shtml
  16. ↑ James Diedrick: Understanding Martin Amis . University of South Carolina Press, Columbia 2004, ISBN 1-57003-516-4 , p. 13. In the original, Martin Amis speaks of "[sent the others] windmilling through the air after twenty or thirty pages."
  17. ↑ Mira Stout: Martin Amis: Down London's Mean Streets . In: New York Times , February 4, 1990. 
  18. ↑ James Diedrick: Understanding Martin Amis . University of South Carolina Press, Columbia 2004, ISBN 1-57003-516-4 , p. 13. In the original, Martin Amis speaks of “older writers should find young writers inimical, because younger writers are sending them an unwelcome message. They are saying, It's not like that anymore. It's like this. "