Customer Reviews

The Second Plane: September 11: Terror and Boredom

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Martin Amis, best known for his outstanding fiction, here offers a collection of previously published essays, as well as a couple of short stories, on the topic of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. The works range (in their original date of publication) from just after the horrible attacks through September 11, 2007. In his forward to this slim collection, Amis admits he was tempted to revise essays which, over time, show their flaws. But bravely, he allows us to see his original work untouched by the corrective pen.

As such, these materials afford Amis' fierciest critics ample opportunity to selectively slice quotations out of context in an attempt to show the writer in deceptively unflattering light (NY Times critic Michiko Kakutani immediately comes to mind). But chuckleheaded critics' opinions notwithstanding, Amis' gift for turning a phrase and cutting to the essence of an idea is without peer. If there is a living writer who matches Amis' vocabulary, stinging humor, poetic nuance and worldly insight I have yet to read him or her.

Take, for example, this excerpt:

"It is by now not too difficult to trace what went wrong, psychologically, in the Iraq War. The fatal turn, the fatal forfeiture of legitimacy, came not with the mistaken but also calculated emphasis on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction: the intelligence agencies of every country on earth, Iraq included, believed that he had them. The fatal turn was the American President's all to palpable submission to the intoxicant of power. His walk, his voice, his idiom, right up to his mortifying appearance in the flight suit on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln ("Mission Accomplished") - every dash and comma in his body language betrayed the unscrupulous confidence of the power surge."

Bloody brilliant. This excerpt alone makes "The Second Plane" worth the twenty clams.

Still, it is in his short stories that Amis' dark humor and unmatched skill as a fictionalist comes most alive. "In the Palace of the End" genuinely evokes Kafka, and was, in places, as haunting to read as "House of Meetings."

Amis' foray into commentary on Islam's intrusion into modern western life drew opprobrium from many quarters. However, I believe his analysis is essential, accurate and true. The writing is exquisite, and the subject is of signal importance for those of us in the west. The torrent of criticism he attracted seems to have had it's desired effect in that Amis' writing on the subject has been few and far between since. I wish Amis would revisit and expand this topic. Very highly recommended.

Martin Amis's political books have typically been the least well received of his oeuvre. His 1987 collection of stories `Einstein's Monsters' felt too contrived and naively over heavy on the big ideas (nuclear weapons) compared to the two satirical masterpieces - Money and London Fields, it was chronologically sandwiched between, and his 2002 Koba the Dread, a book to honour the victims of Stalin, was a bit of a hash of an exercise that strained too hard for effect, comparing, at one point, the screams of his infant child with the millions that perished under Stalin in the Gulag.

In this collection of essays and fiction, however, Amis has rather more success in mixing his personal life and concerns with the big political themes that affect us all. The book brings together a collection of Amis's writings on the theme of September 11, and the myriad fallout from the events of that day: the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the wider concerns to assert American power more fully in the Middle East, and more generally (and this is Amis's real concern) the subliminal effects that terrorism has on us all: `it's mystery, its instability, and its terrible dynamism'.

The publication of this collection comes after a long running media spat concerning Amis's views on Islam. Terry Eagleton, Amis's colleague at Manchester University accused him of being tantamount to a `British National Party thug'; the satirical comedian Chris Morris tagged Amis as `The New Abu Hamza'. All this following an interview Amis gave to the Independent in which he mused that `don't you feel the urge that the Muslim community must suffer in order to get its house in order. What measures? `Things like strip searching people who look like they come from The Middle East, or Pakistan.'

Clearly, the old saw about all publicity being good publicity has worked in this case, as The Second Plane is already on its third print run. But what is Amis actually advocating in his views towards Islam? The reality, now that these pieces are all bought together under the same cover, and not merely the disparate fragments of journalism written over a variety of years and numinous publications, is an interestingly thought out, rationally developed view on the burgeoning problem of Islamism. Amis starts the collection with the title piece written immediately after September 11, the almost hallucinogenic quality of the prose bringing back memories of this period when everyone in the world was dealing with the shock of the event. The long term ramifications were unknown, but even then Amis was perceptive in turning his attentions to the terrain, mental and physical, he believed would be most keenly affected - the hitherto protected western liberal worldview, and the wrecked, Taliban crippled badlands of Afghanistan, `they should be firmly bombarded with consignments of food, firmly marked LENDLEASE USA', was his recommendation then.

Now, six and a half years on, we know a lot more. Amis states in the introduction that geopolitics may not be his natural subject, but masculinity is. And he uses this leitmotif to paint an interesting picture of terrorism as masculinity gone wrong, warped, banjaxed with religious and cultural strain. He traces this back to the figure of Sayyid Qutb, a young Egyptian man who came to America in the 1950s. Already semi-radicalised by the vestiges of the British Protectorate in Cairo, and the establishment of Israel, he found himself repulsed by the liberties that were established in America. With almost comical lack of self awareness he found himself threatened by the `bulging breasts and smooth legs' of the young women. Raged and inspired, he embarked on a large corpus of work, prose and poetry, of which the following lines are indicative:

A girl looks at you, appearing as if she were an

enchanting nymph or an escaped mermaid, but as she

approaches, you sense only the screaming instinct inside

her, and you can smell her burning body, not the scent

of perfume but flesh, only flesh

Clearly, not a man at ease with his sexuality.

Islamism (at times Amis takes pains to distinguish this from Islam in general, at other points he seems to elide the two notions) as it is now, is at crisis point. The civil war within Islam has been won by the fundamentalists, Amis argues, the moderates have lost out, and now the dominant force is a retrograde, barbaric, misogynistic, homophobic, murderous ideology. This is the point at which Amis (like his fellow media cohorts on the left, Christopher Hitchens and Nick Cohen - or should that be, formerly on the left?) parts company with type of liberal who would far more eagerly bash the administration of George Bush than the address the human rights disaster going on in the Middle East. Amis spares no effort in using his full descriptive talents to outline the horrors. For example he describes a magazine picture of a Saudi newscaster beaten by her husband as looking like a `crudely cross-sectioned watermelon, but you could make out one or two humanoid features half submerged in the crimson pulp.'

Does he go too far in trying to draw a clean cut line between the moral West and the backward and barbaric Arab cultures? There is little in this collection to suggest that Amis is an outright Islamophobe. His writing is certainly too precise, stylish and intelligent to lapse into careless racist slurs, and he does devote a small amount of space to acknowledging the vast cultural contributions Islam has made to the world. But there are undoubtedly weaknesses in the collection. The number of actual, real life Muslims Amis encounters is very few. There is an encounter with a gatekeeper at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem: `I will never forget the look on (his) face when I suggested, perhaps rather airily, that he skip some calendric prohibition and let me in anyway', and an anecdote from Pakistan when, travelling with Christopher Hitchens, they encounter a street stall selling Osama Bin Laden t-shirts. That is pretty much it. Most of the pieces are from the viewpoint of a man who has approached the issue on a purely cerebral level - buttressed by a whole raft of books (4 pieces in these 14 piece collection are, themselves, book reviews, and citations to other secondary sources litter almost every page), privileged access to the entourage of Tony Blair (documented at length in an extended piece of reportage), and a strong position as a highly regarded intellectual figure in the Western world with a tendency to epater les bien pensants de la gauche. It is a little like the people who proclaim loftily and radically on how to reform the education system or the NHS. Those with experience on the ground can usually supply key insights that the pure thinkers don't have access too.

Further still, is a curious piece on Mark Steyn, a neo-con Canadian writer who most civilized readers can see through as a plain fascist in frontiersman's clothing. Amis considers Steyn's book America Alone and writes `Mark Steyn is an oddity: his thoughts and themes are sane and serious - but he writes like a maniac.' After some fun poking at his style, Amis agrees that we should take very seriously Steyn's prediction that the rising birth-rates amongst Islamic cultures may drown out the culture of choice and rights and entitlements in the lower birth-rate, Western European countries.

Such points are the low end of the wide spectrum of Amis's us and them mentality towards Islam and Islamism. For the most part, he has devoted much time and intellectual rigour to this most vital of contemporary themes, and his writing is as vigorous and stylish as ever.

Mr. Amis expresses the bile that many of us feel for these deformed, ugly, self-proclaimed 'religious' 'men.' The Islamists don't design planes, don't administer flight training, don't create or offer much of anything. They fail to evangelize as other religious people do in the civilized world - (i.e. by being nice and generous while INVITING others to join them in bowing and scraping, chanting incantations, eating special food and wearing special clothes...)

Apparently they can only think to stab a 110 lb. stewardess in the back as item #1 on their 'to do' lists. Death cults are a little weak on subtlety and imagination.

All in a day's work, one might suppose ...and in line with the tradition of heaving wheelchair-bound old guys into the Mediterranean ...or butchering Olympic athletes or reporters or diplomats in cold blood ...or strapping bombs on trusting young girls who happen to have Down's Syndrome...

...and on and on and on.

Amis' prose, glittering with hatred for these September 11th Islamist creatures, is relentless. ('Critics' are usually uncomfortable with relentlessness.)

We should thank our lucky stars for an honest, passionate good guy like Martin Amis. This fine collection of essays and stories is as stunning as his book a few years ago that tore into another vile bag of garbage: a certain Mr. Iosif Dzugashvili / Joseph Stalin.

This book is a series of published essays relating to the September 11 attacks. It provides a short, easy to read summation of the pulse of the world at the time and details the atrocities in such a manner as to bring the motives of the Taliban and their forebears into view. In one clever essay, Amis fictionally brings to life the final days of the terrorist who flew the second plane into the twin towers, masterfully using his literary genius to display the human and inhumane fortitude. Light reading, but nonetheless a significant book in the study of post September 11.

A very passionate book. Mr. Amis shows no sympathy for the religion of Islam (or any other religion for that matter). Religions suppress reason, women and education. He also brushes aside those who sympathize with Islam - that the `terrorists' are responding to repression from America or Israel. Islamic militants want to kill us and they are intolerant.

He also shows disdain to Bush and his Iraq invasion. As many others have pointed out - Bush looks for an analysis (or fabricates one) that supports his viewpoint and has no tolerance for contrary opinions.

Also Amis shows a good knowledge of Islamic fundamentalism quoting often from Sayyid Qutb, the founder of modern day Wahhabism.

Not an easy book for the digestion.

In "The Second Plane, Martin Amis has produced an excellent book. It is a collection of his journalism since the events of 11 September 2001. The collection is coherent, well researched and a compelling read.

Amis has no sympathy for the barbarians of the Islamic world. In many respects, he is close to the views of his colleague, Christopher Hitchens. His perspective, however, is somewhat more European. He endeavours to see a bigger picture while, at the same time, calling a spade a spade. He sees modern Islam for what it is; namely, a pretence for barbarism.

Perhaps the best chapter from the book is his reconstruction of the last days and hours in the life of Muhammad Atta, the pilot of the second plane to hit the twin towers in New York. Here, we see raw fanaticism. Atta was a psychopath, totally loathsome in all respects. Yet, there is little doubt that there are other such individuals who would love to emulate his "achievements". Amis has little time for such people. He sees them for the shallow but dangerous individuals that they are. He also has no time for the religious fundamentalism that they represent.

Yet despite his views on Atta and his horrible clique, Amis has no sympathy for the likes of George W Bush. This is a man that he identifies as being incompetent at best and stupid at worst. However, by some strange means, this backwoods Texan came to be the leader of the free world. Surely, we can do better?

I suspect that the far right in America will not like some of the arguments put by Amis. Too bad! Amis is a breath of fresh air in the modern political discourse. His book is time and money well spent.

Early on Amis writes about writing. He wonders how to make some fiction out of the fact of September 11 -- a reaction I found initially puzzling since enough fiction concerning this has already tried to present itself as fact. So here we have a compilation of published opinion/journalism and short fiction, arranged chronologically and in places "revised". And yes, the fiction is perhaps the strongest, with one piece being quintessential Amis and the second, longer being something of an interesting hybrid.

In the factual pieces he again attaches his comprehension and fear to one of his long standing personal demons: nuclear holocaust. In the radioactive threat after September 11 he can no longer enjoy simply looking at his children, which is as grim a capitulation to what must be perceived as an absent future one can make. In so doing Amis tends to fall in step with some of the Bush Administration hyperbole concerning the scale of the threat. I guess if we take into account that the Bush Administration is "in charge" this might not be too much of an overstatement, but in "Terror and Boredom: The Dependent Mind" -- despite the "revision phase" -- Amis again trots out the old canard that "Everyone Thought Saddam Had Weapons of Mass Destruction". I admit to feeling confused by this orientation: was I the only person who repeatedly read and saw the reports of Hans Blix, all running utterly contrary to the WMD meme being circulated by the politicians and news media before the U.S. attack on Iraq? Amis gratefully does often see clear of such gross simplifications of the threat, but never completely.

The fiction is indeed the more rewarding work here: with "In the Palace of the End" Amis accomplishes another weepingly hilarious work in his now rather long string of the blackest of humors. His language and perception are uniformly remarkable in "The Last Days of Muhammad Atta" -- typically brilliant Amis. "Whatever else terrorism had achieved in the past few decades, it had certainly brought about a net increase in world boredom" is a line that should read across vast and billowing banners at every airport checkpoint on earth. But as convincingly wrought as "The Last Days of Mohammad Atta" proves to be, it sadly falters to a rather cliché ending which simply pirouettes to the beginning: That final sentence lacks only the ellipsis...

It may well be worthwhile to have these pieces combined into a single volume. But then again, their proximity to one another doesn't really seem to enhance the value of each as a standalone. In the end "The Second Plane" might simply be an economically expedient way to extend return on effort.

I think the author makes some relevant points in these essays. He reviews the ignorance of those Islamists who wage war against modernism and women. He shows the leap of faith that Bush made when he decided to wage war against Iraq. He wonders why Atta increased the speed of the plane when it went into the second tower. Atta as a character in this attack is also reviewed. Atta is an evil character in this essay.

This is an OK read about the 9/11 attacks. Although we will never know the true motives of the 19 attackers, the author describes there hatred of others and their disrepect to their own religion.

This volume is a collection of essays and short stories written in response to the 2001 terrorist attacks. Amis, a novelist and outspoken critic of radical Islam, addresses cobtroversial aspects of religion and war. The collection does include "Bush in Yes-Man's Land," "The Wrong War," as well as two stores, including "The Last Days of Muhammad Atta." The essays are presented to us in the same order they were originally first published and do include some violence.