Father and Son: Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, and the British Novel since 1950

5. The Amises on Realism and Postmodernism: Stanley and the Women and Money: A Suicide Note

5 The Amises on Realism and Postmodernism Stanley and the Women and Money: A Suicide Note Ofcourse Martin Amis is more famous than I am now.... But you give the boy a rest. The truth is, Phil, that we all suffer from the limitations ofthe age we were born in. Just as the generation before us had no time for Ulysses, so in our turn weeeeghghgh ... - Kingsley Amis to Philip Larkin, 8 February 1984 When viewed as companion texts, or contemporaneous instances ofrevaluative critique, Kingsley Amis's fifteenth novel, Stanley and the Women (1984), and Martin's fifth novel, Money: A Suicide Note (1984) illuminate two subjects hitherto unexamined in the Amis father-and-son relationship: the Amises' perspectives on postmodernism and their controversial portraits ofwomen. Whereas LuckyJim and The Rachel Papers situated the Amises in relation to their divergent forms ofcomedy, and whereas Ending Up and DeadBabies positioned them in relation to their satiric differences, Stanley and the Women and Money extended their confrontations into new generic territory, interrogating their opinions about the evolution ofpostmodernism and realism. A novel that explicitly rejects all forms of literary fabulation, Kingsley's Stanley and the Women declares the validity ofclassically realistic protocol. A forum for 162 The Amises on Realism and Postmodernism 163 Martin's postmodernist leanings, Money subverts the narrative assumptions that inform Kingsley's more traditional brand of social realism. Both novels, however, confront variations ofliterary tradition and patriarchy : one is sociopolitical in nature, concerned with distinctions between patriarchy and misogyny, and one is generic, or modal, concerned with the modal transformations within realism. While the Amises' writings continued to reflect their engagement in a covert literary war, their two 1984 texts featured an additional dynamic: whereas previous novels revealed Martin's dedication to reworking his father's texts and his literary authority, by 1984, Martin's career had begun to eclipse his father's. When Martin released Money to great critical acclaim, there seemed little doubt about which Amis's star was in ascendancy. As a consequence , Stanley and the Women can be seen as an instance ofpaternalnot filial- revaluation, as Kingsley addressed, reworked, and displaced Martin's postmodern techniques and themes, which had become decidedly more popular. Until the late 1970s, critics and readers alike could agree about the qualities of Kingsley's work: raucous, sometimes dark, comic satire; controversially iconoclastic heroes; a firmly centered moral consciousness ; the triumph ofcommon sense over pretension or hypocrisy; an expert stylistic precision; and a conflation of the high with the low, producing an eminently readable, comically engaging presentation. By 1978, however, such critical consensus had become difficult to reach. Martin, by contrast, had increasingly received critical and popular praise during this period. The qualities of his work were easier to agree upon. Like Kingsley's precedent examples, Martin's early novels were raucous comic satires that featured controversial, iconoclastic heroes. But contra Kingsley's, Martin's style was proudly assertive and dramatic. In addition , his treatment of morality, time, and consciousness perfectly matched the postmodern zeitgeist. Two main factors contributed to the Amises' shifting reputations: stated generally, these were controversial charges of male chauvinism and the Amises' positions within contemporary literary debates, especially the future ofrealism and postmodernism . Not surprisingly, these were the chief dynamics that animated Stanley and the Women and Money, and for the first time, due to the books' simultaneous publication, the Amises' literary quarrels could be witnessed concurrently.1 r64 Influence andIntersection Chauvinism, Feminism, and Misogyny Few authors in England or America have rivaled the Amises' abilities to inflame gender controversy. As have other authors before themErnest Hemingway, Philip Larkin, D. H. Lawrence, Norman Mailer, and Philip Roth, to name but a few-the Amises both write from a decidedly male perspective. They are masculinist authors whose works challenge genteel assumptions about morality and character. In many respects, gender relations were always Kingsley's grand theme, but his less reserved, often blatantly honest depictions ofwomen differentiated him from his contemporaries. Like his father-albeit with different methods-Martin is an archaeologist of shifting sensibilities, a diagnostician of contemporary social mores who refuses to temper his dark treatments ofmodern decay, whether they occur within men or women. Of course, both Amises wrote during some of the most politicized decades in the late twentieth century, complicating matters. As do most good writers, the Amises fictionally incorporate the social issues of their time, assimilating them to illuminate complexities...