Man + Money = Gorgeous Women

What first struck me reading Martin Amis’ Money, was his style of writing, a mix of a conversation with me, the reader, and a stream of consciousness. It is often the case that the narrator, John Self, a high-class (in his mind at least) London socialite and director of commercials, will go off random on a tangent rant, in which he often contradicts himself.  He is obsessed with physical attractiveness and is only distracted from it by extreme wealth.  Inevitably, the two elements combine into the cosmetic industry, an industry that greatly interests John since he has one of his two favorite elements in life; that is money.

In the passage I have chosen, John is at a lunch meeting with Fielding Goodney, a born-in-riches 26 year old, who is going to be the producer for John’s first film. As the conversation enters the realm of finances, John’s love of money isn’t enough to keep him concentrated on Fielding’s finance tirade. He tells the reader that he found himself wondering about the potential affair between Selina Street, his ‘girlfriend’, and Alec Llewellyn, his best friend. What’s strange is that he is not imagining them having sex, but imagines what Alec and Selina are doing post-coital, as if he was sure they were having an affair. He uses his own memories of being with Selina and simply places Alec into his own shoes. Ironically, he then proceeds to describing the lust that exists naturally between himself and Selina’s best friends. In them, he sees Selina with the additional excitement of being different bodily shapes. The fact that he has sex with Selina as a daily routine empowers her in his eyes, but at the same, adds an aura of excitement of the unknown to her best friends who are so similar to Selina, a part from the having sex part. It is then that he bombards the readers with questions, which we have no way of answering, only to answer them himself with evident confidence in his response.  Unlike the ‘normal’ lover, he does assume that Selina loves or even like him, but that instead, she a gold digger scheming to live off of his money. He sees no problem in this due to his belief that money brings beauty to even the repugnant of people, whether it is through ‘state-of-the-art cosmetic labs’ or squadrons of trophy wives. He concludes that the only reason his ‘girlfriend’ Selina Street would not cheat on him, an over-weight and pale middle-aged man, with Alec Llewellyn, because Alec doesn’t have the wealth that he does. Simply put it, John’s interpretation of life is the following: MAN + MONEY = GORGEOUS WOMEN.

Money by Martin Amis, p. 29

 

And he was away, his voice full of passionate connoisseurship, with many parallels and precedents, Italian banking, liquidity preference, composition fallacy, hyperinflation, business confidence syndrome, booms and panics, US corporations, the sobriety of financial architecture, the Bust of ’29, the suicides on La Salle and Wall Street…And I found myself wondering whether Alec has seen the single dead flower in the jamjar beside Selina’s bed, or heard her peeing and humming in the quiet bathroom, the black pants like a wire connecting her calves. There seems to be a thing about girls and best friends. I always fancy their best friends too, come to think about it. I certainly fancy Debby and Mandy, and that Helle from the boutique whom Selina hobnobs with. Perhaps you fancy your girl’s best friends because your girl and her best friends have a lot in common. They’re very alike, except in one particular. You don’t go to bed with the best friends all the time. In the sack she can give you one thing your girl can’t give you: a change from your girl. Not even Selina can give you that. Is Alec fucking her? Well, what do you think? Is she doing him all those nice favours? Could be, no? Here’s my theory. I don’t think she is. I don’t think Selina Street is fucking Alec Llewellyn. Why? Because he hasn’t got any money. I have. Come on, why do you reckon Selina had soldiered it out with me? For my pot belly, my bad rug, my personality? She’s not in this for her health, now is she? … I tell you, these reflections really cheered me up. You know where you are with economic necessity. When I make all this money I’m going to make, my position will be even stronger. Then I can kick Selina out and get someone better.