Writing of Wasted Human Beings and Its Ethical Implications in Time's Arrow

doi:10.15936/j.cnki.1008-3758.2020.04.016

Abstract

Abstract: While focusing on “doubling” and time inversion， the current studies on Martin Amis's Time's Arrow pay little attention to the special role of the writing of wasted human beings playing in exposing “the nature of the offence”. Starting from the detail that the weeds in a garden are degraded to waste， Amis interprets the nature of the Holocaust as two kinds of interrelated violence of being wasted under the context of modernity: the victim's wasted experience in terms of body due to Nazi's order project and the perpetrator's wasted experience in terms of ethics due to responsibility transfer. Instead of a postmodern trick of pursuing pranks， the writing of being wasted has its own ethical implications. In addition to challenging the paradigm regarding the Holocaust as the failure of modern civilization， Amis's writing of being wasted lies in asking the readers to make ethical judgement on the responsibility of the Holocaust through “nasty fun”. Meanwhile， it also aims at having the readers examine their own evil of banality， which may provide possible solutions to the anxiety of nuclear Holocaust in reality.

Key words: Time's Arrow, being wasted, the Holocaust, modernity, ethics

CLC Number:

I106.4

SHU Shao-jun. Writing of Wasted Human Beings and Its Ethical Implications in Time's Arrow[J]. Journal of Northeastern University(Social Science), 2020, 22(4): 120-126.

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