Martin Amis Insults Children's Book Authors On BBC Program'Faulks On Fiction'

Author Marcus Amis threw an insult at children's book authors on the BBC book program "Faulks on Fiction," The Guardian reported.

While on the show, Amis said:

People ask me if I ever thought of writing a children's book. I say, 'If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children's book', but otherwise the idea of being conscious of who you're directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.

He went on to add, "I would never write about someone that forced me to write at a lower register than what I can write."

These comments have rendered many children's book authors very offended. Lucy Coats responded to his statements on her blog, calling them "arrogant twaddle," and remarking that they were an "implicit insult to those of us who do write children's books."

Coats went on the note that children are much more intelligent that Amis gives them credit for, and that she does not "write down" to them. She states that the process of writing a children's book is much the same as that of writing a novel. She noted, "When I write, I think about language, the richness and complexity and wonder of it, and I use it to hook the reader into my story, to ensnare them in my net of words, to take them so far that they forget that what they are seeing is only print on a page of a dead tree."

For writer Jane Stemp, the comment was particularly insulting: "I have brain damage ... So Amis couldn't have insulted me harder if he'd sat down and thought about it for a year. Superglueing him to a wheelchair and piping children's fiction into his auditory canal suddenly seems like a good idea."

Writer John Dougherty simply dismissed the statements made with, "Don't worry Martin. We can't all be imaginative and versatile."

This is neither the first (nor likely the last) time that Amis has made offensive comments. In 2009, he dismissed model/author Katie Price as "two bags of silicone" and in a 2006 interview with The Times, he stated that Muslims should "suffer until they get their house in order."

Comments

[tj3usa]

08:06 AM on 03/22/2011

That's nice.

[ChicagoBob]

01:29 AM on 02/16/2011

I understand the comment. But I do not understand why he would choose to limit himself to adults when his message could be so influential to young readers.

Writing for children gives an author the opportunity to insight the imagination of minds, to draw them into the world of magic, science, history, philosophy, enabling the younger reader to form a permanent bond with the written word forsaking the vapid world of video games thus giving a young brain a chance to develop its own, unique creativity and world view.

Martin Amis is truly a gifted writer, but fairly short sighted.

[Mum]

08:27 AM on 02/15/2011

Oh, Kingsley, what have you wrought?

[Brett Tonaille]

03:42 AM on 02/15/2011

Talk about tempting fate... ("Before his brain injury, children's author Martin Amis wrote only for adults. Now that the third in his Hairy Potfreak series is being made into yet another blockbuster movie, the billionaire author....")

[missingjournalism]

01:44 AM on 02/15/2011

I didn't read his comments as insulting but refreshing in his self-awareness of his limitations as a writer and that he is incapable of writing a children's book.

Children's books help mold generations and are passed on from one generation to the next.

General Fiction, such as Martin's, speak mostly to a single generation then shelved and remaindered.

[Melwyk]

08:40 PM on 02/14/2011

Pompous man. The best response I've seen? A suggestion for Martin to "get into" some kid lit in order to understand it a little better....pure mockery, beautifully drawn ;)
http://tinyurl.com/6dxluvj

[gemini68]

01:59 PM on 02/14/2011

Elitism at its worst. Some of literature's most classic and beloved books are children's books.

[jafsie]

01:23 PM on 02/14/2011

"I would never write about someone that forced me to write at a lower register than what I can write."

For someone who considers himself a superior writer, he certainly doesn't speak very well.

[Ramon Moreno]

10:49 AM on 02/14/2011

"Superglueing him to a wheelchair and piping children's fiction into his auditory canal suddenly seems like a good idea."

The handicapped have gotten way too sold on their importance. They are liabilities in society and need to retake their place. That goes for the all-important children as well.

[jrb35]

12:27 AM on 02/15/2011

"liabilities in society"? That's a stretch. I'm disabled and have a masters degree. I'd say the uneducated and generally ignorant tea bagger types are a far bigger liability on society than me.

[Ramon Moreno]

07:20 PM on 02/15/2011

Sure, if that's what you'd like to offer for comparison.

[blurredmolly]

06:08 PM on 02/13/2011

Who?

[jafsie]

01:30 PM on 02/14/2011

The fivehead in the photo, whose brain power has apparently been diminished by cigarettes and Grecian Formula.

[blurredmolly]

07:44 PM on 02/14/2011

You know him better than I.

[blurredmolly]

07:44 PM on 02/14/2011

Fivehead?

[Ergon]

03:08 PM on 02/13/2011

Am I the only person on the planet who finds Martin Amis unreadable? His misantrophy gets in the way of his supposed intellectualism.

[Ramon Moreno]

10:50 AM on 02/14/2011

Commonly referred to as the truth hurting.

[Ergon]

11:02 AM on 02/14/2011

The fact that he's a failure in his own mind? His sarcasm hides the fact the adulation's er, dried up.

[liberalviewer]

11:30 AM on 02/13/2011

To be perfectly fair, most of Amis' novels seem to be written by a brain damaged individual. So, he's on track.

[Hana Candelaria]

04:59 PM on 02/13/2011

Touche!

[Soulfest]

10:32 AM on 02/13/2011

The point he has made that I completely agree with is the concept of the author writing without being conscious of who the audience is. If an artist creates in their most authentic voice, and in a purity of their expression, than they are not writing for the audience. If an audience really could determine what they exactly desire in an artist, than they would be the creators creating the art and not the audience.

[Charles London]

12:11 PM on 02/14/2011

I don't think creating in an authentic voice and being conscious of one's audience are mutually exclusive.

[Soulfest]

12:17 PM on 02/14/2011

I'll buy that...I might have said pandering to the audience...

[eric14]

10:26 AM on 02/13/2011

He describes himself well. The fact that others have the capacity to lower register is indicative of a skill he does not have. There is no argument here.

[nicnic]

09:38 AM on 02/14/2011

agreed-. He just does not know what he is talking about. So, no offense taken.

[eric14]

10:01 AM on 02/14/2011

When his vanity was sated by success, he was amusing and witty. Now he a little sour and bitter. Pity. I thought he would write comedy. Instead he became one.

[gemini68]

02:00 PM on 02/14/2011

Faved.

[keith2817]

07:38 AM on 02/13/2011

like me saying i will never play second base for the yankees. has anyone really ASKED this joker to write a children's book?

[jafsie]

01:25 PM on 02/14/2011

No child would want to read his writing anyway.

[Ramon Moreno]

07:23 PM on 02/15/2011

Children can suck it.

[Jakesmom]

09:05 PM on 03/13/2011

Yes, writing for children takes a talent that most people don't have, which he seems to acknowledge. If he doesn't want to, why would anyone ask him?