money pt. 2

I really enjoyed the series of passages in which Amis introduces the character of Martin Amis into the story. He first comes up when John is describing his neighborhood and neighbors to the reader:

"Oh yeah, and there's a writer who lives around my way too.... He gives me the creeps. 'Know me again would you?' I once shouted across the street, and gave him a V sign and a warning fist. He stood his ground, and stared. This writer's name, they tell me, is Martin Amis. Never heard of him. Do you know his stuff at all?" (71-72)

He reappears later when John Self actually encounters him face to face at a bar the night before he goes back to America.

"I was just sitting there, not stirring, not even breathing, like the pub's pet reptile, when who should sit down opposite me but Martin Amis, the writer. He had a glass of wine, and a cigarette - also a book, a paperback. It looked quite serious. So did he, in a way. Small, compact, wears his rug fairly long...

I was feeling friendly, as I say, so I yawned, sipped my drink and whispered 'Sold a million yet?'

After this, they have a fairly long conversation that I found humorous because Martin Amis' character is so obviously put off and disgusted by John Self.  For the most part, their interaction consisted of Self making unfunny jokes, asking stupid questions, and at the end, having an unnecessary, confrontational outburst which he directed at Amis. Amis' responses to Self are basically all one word answers, and send a clear message that he does not want to be wasting his time talking to Self at all. My favorite moment like this was when the character Martin Amis replied "Fancy." to Self's statement "I haven't read any of your books. There's, I don't really get that much time for reading." I thought this was funny because by introducing a character who presumably is supposed to be a representation of himself and making him openly dismissive of Self, Amis is showing the reader that he disapproves of the type of person whom John Self is; slovenly, gluttonous, indulgent, and materialistic. I also think that in this conversation, Martin Amis the writer purposely had John Self say and ask things to Amis' character that Amis the writer hates having said to him. For example,

 'Hey,' I said, 'Your dad's a writer too, isn't he? Bet that made it easier.' 

'Oh sure. it's just like taking over the family pub.' 

'Uh?'

Here, the character of Amis openly mocks John Self, and Self doesn't even get it so he can only respond with "Uh?". This conversation, especially at the end when Self drunkenly takes Amis' goodbye the wrong way and screams in his face, makes the reader see Self as even more of an absurd, disgusting fool. I think that this part is more of an example of Quintilian humor because while it is humorous because Self is being made fun of, Amis uses this humor to achieve a "particular end". In addition to being funny, it also "dispels more serious emotions". It is clear that it is no coincidence that a character named Martin Amis who is a writer has appeared in the story. I also saw that a characteristic of Quintilian comedy is that it "refreshes members of the audience and revives them when they have begun to be bored or wearied by the [speech]". While I obviously would not agree that Money is boring to read, the novel is not exactly plot driven and consists mostly of John Self's internal narration so the introduction of Martin Amis as a character certainly made things more interesting and made me want to see how their relationship plays out.