From: hjkhjkhd@hhhh.com   
      
   "Walter Traprock"  wrote in message   
   news:wetraprock-207D24.14112816102006@comcast.dca.giganews.com...   
   > "ROBBIE"  wrote:   
   >   
   >> >> Oh yeah; Burgess, Bainbridge, Kingers, Barnes, Naipaul.   
   >> >   
   >> > The Burgess looks interesting (never heard of it but will look for it),   
   >> > I've read some Bainbridge, the thing on Scott (all right but nothing   
   >> > great IMO), I like Barnes (but then I like Flaubert and French culture   
   >> > in general) and Naipaul (though I haven't read the one on the list).   
   >> >   
   >> > I've never read any Amis Sr. What would you suggest for a non-Brit   
   >> > first timer?   
   >>   
   >> The Old Devils or Lucky Jim - better still: get his collected _Letters_   
   >> funny and relentless twitting of all forms of wanky leftism. Many wrong   
   >> and   
   >> ridiculous things in there but that's personal correspondence for ya. He   
   >> derides Waugh for example: 'A cunt who only wrote one good novel' which   
   >> is   
   >> the silliest thing he says in the whole book (because as a   
   >> prose-monger/stylist Waugh could kick Amis's very fat bottom round the   
   >> garden IMO whilst accepting that Amis Snr was the superior novelist in   
   >> terms   
   >> of actually dealing with life and not the mix of snobbery and theology   
   >> that   
   >> Waugh besieged his own talent with: interestingly there is a picture of   
   >> Amis   
   >> Snr in old age where he looks exactly like the late stage Waugh) - apart   
   >> from many silly and embarassing things about Maggie Thatcher. But it   
   >> packs a   
   >> wallop and plants its flag against the kind posers and pseuds that have   
   >> come   
   >> on abundance since his day. It's deeply satisfying in these days to read   
   >> someone who is prepared to call Picasso a 'piss-poor paint pusher'. He   
   >> also   
   >> calls Yoko Ono 'a nip' - ah, innocent pleasures, eh, Martha? He takes   
   >> against Ronald Firbank as well (without even reading him - he would have   
   >> hated I'm sure), as many people do, but Prancing Nigger is far more   
   >> funny,   
   >> beautiful and enjoyable to me than Lucky Jim - though that book is very   
   >> important.   
   >   
   > What are you talking about, Ronald Firbank?   
      
   My name isn't Ronald Firbank. Are you a squarehead with teething trouble or   
   is this obfuscation via pose?   
      
    The local bookstore had   
   > some of his books, like prancing nigger, ca (something) and vermouth or   
   > something.  Thomas Firbank's book I bought A Mountain looks far more   
   > interesting, so i bought that instead.   
      
   It depends what you're interested in - I rate being amused.   
      
   ROBBIE   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)