The
novelist's heroes, or central characters, are clearly meant to do more
than just go round being close or distant relatives of him. As between
him and them in the first place, they are vehicles of his self-criticism
–– an important function of poetry too. By that very act of
distancing, by projecting himself into an entity that is part of himself
and yet not himself, he may be able to see more clearly, and judge more
harshly, his own weaknesses and follies; and, since he must know that
no failings are unique, he may be helped to acquire tolerance for them
in others. In the second place, if the novel comes off at all, the
reader will perhaps accompany the writer in some parallel process of
self-discovery.
But that is still not enough; in an age that increasingly likes to view
art as occupational therapy for the artist, it may even be too much.
What about the character working in the novel? For me, the novel works
on the character, at any rate rough-hews the character. It is not the
case that a fully-formed hero goes stalking about in search of
situations in which he can be effectively arrogant or incompetent or
spiteful or pathetic or even decent, though he may very likely fall as
if by chance into a couple of such in the course of being written
about. The central situation comes first in every sense.
'Real and Made-up People' [Times Literary Supplement, 27 July 1973]
Use the link below to read 'Is Today's Literary Culture Macho Enough For Kingsley Amis?', a 2015 article posted in the online archive of The New Republic:
https://newrepublic.com/article/122584/todays-literary-culture-macho-enough-kingsley-amis
You might also enjoy:
That Uncertain Feeling (1955) by KINGSLEY AMIS
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