"My first reaction was, you've got to be kidding," says Louise Doughty on the Guardian books blog on hearing that Martin Amis is to take up the post of professor of creative writing at Manchester University. "Amis has spawned a thousand young admirers and imitators but Jamie Oliver he ain't." Nevertheless, she is "inclined to believe he will make a rather good tutor. I think it's the students who will cause the problems . . . His reputation will attract the sort of aspiring writer who wants to be Amis the man as much as Amis the novelist. As a result, I am hereby off ering him some sincere advice. Be practical and prescriptive . . . Resist the temptation to talk about yourself. They will all want to know, but that's tough . . . Look for talent where it seems least likely", and "never, ever drink the coff ee".
"One wonders how this came to pass," ponders Bournemouth Runner on the Art of Fiction. "Did Amis's agent tout him around or did the university wine and dine him? I suspect a bit of both. But what's more intriguing is what he is actually going to be professor of. I studied on the MA in creative writing there in 1997- 99, when it was four or five years into its life and so unloved by the university that it wasn't even in the English department (which seemed to be mostly made up of Anglo-Saxon experts), but in American Studies . . . No more, it seems. Rather than a berth for a hard-up poet, we've now got the most legendary of English writers. I hope the university gives him the support he needs (not least in fielding the application postbag) . . . It makes a lot of sense in many ways, him taking on such a role, and in Manchester as well. There's no Ladbroke Grove here; but he might wander down Stockport Road and check out the melting pot of Levenshulme. More than that, Amis has always been serious about what he does -- so like him or loathe him , his is a voice to be reckoned with."
"It is a truth universally acknowledged by publishers that writers must not grow older, and a truth which must be dealt with by writers that they do," muses Fictionbitch. "Pricking up her ears for the current lingo at school coming-out time is one of the Bitch's now customary practices, and even Zadie Smith must, in the acknowledgments for On Beauty, thank her younger brothers for 'advice on all the things I am too old to know'. And now here's Martin Amis giving as one of his reasons for taking on a creative writing professorship at Manchester the fact that he wants to keep in touch with how young people think. Martin Amis getting down with the students -- I guess their recruitment will go through the roof. " "Is it April 1 already? Is he havin' a laugh?" wonders Tim Sterne at Sarsaparilla [sarsaparillablog.net]. "Of course Amis isn't havin' a laugh, he's havin' a midlife crisis. Another midlife crisis. Seems he wants to reconnect with da kids in the hope of rediscovering his muse -- or maybe just so he can score some decent weed . . . I reckon Mart'll make a pretty good teacher, but that won't be why students will be rushing to sign up. No, they'll be signing up because having Martin Amis as your creative writing tutor is a win-win situation. If he commends your work, well, wouldn't that be a thrill? If he hates it, though, you can have a good rant about nasty old elitist Martin, wouldn't know good writing if it mashed in his plummy mug with a right hook, hasn't written anything decent since Money . . . never would've scored a publisher if not for his old man (etc, etc, ad nauseam)."
WH Auden's centenary celebrations were ushered in on the Guardian books blog this week by James Fenton. "When I was a student in the 60s, people who cared about poetry would fight their corner passionately. Some thought that all virtue lay with the Black Mountain poets, or with William Carlos Williams, or with the Beats. Most acknowledged Eliot somewhere in their pantheon. There were many fanatics for Pound. Not many were as enthusiastic as I was about Auden," he explains. "Today I am still always pleased, but never surprised, to meet an Auden enthusiast. The question mark that hung like a cloud over his reputation has moved on, and hangs over others. It's a long time since I met a young fanatic for Pound and Zukofsky -- trailblazers though they once were. Auden at 100 seems well vindicated. Happy birthday, Uncle Wiz!"
