“Money” by Martin Amis (post 6): John Self, the protagonist, and Martin Amis, the writer, are both alternate personalities of Martin Amis

I will conclude this novel by clarifying the nature of one of its characters, “Martin Amis, the writer.”

Martin Amis, the writer, is not the same as Martin Amis, regular person (sibling, spouse, parent, friend, etc.). The latter is the author’s host personality; the former is his alternate personality who does the writing.

Martin Amis, the writer, and John Self, the protagonist, are both alternate personalities of Martin Amis, the regular, host personality. The writer personality is more real than the protagonist personality only in the sense that the writer personality will continue to have an active worldly function in the person’s ongoing life, while the protagonist personality of this particular novel will probably be retired, and remain inside, like other characters in the person’s previous novels.

The inclusion of Martin Amis, the writer as a character in this novel exposes a usually hidden aspect of the fiction writing process: novels are written, in large part, by alternate personalities (writers, narrators, characters, muses, editors).

However, the author’s interview personality (host?), in presuming that everyone’s mind “is full of jabbering voices” (see past post), may have assumed that all his readers would be familiar with alternate personalities (due to having their own). But not all readers of novels have multiple personality trait.

It is an interesting question as to what percentage of people who read novels have multiple personality trait. Since I estimate that 90% of novelists have it, and guess that up to 30% of the general public has it, I would guess that 60% of people who love to read novels have it. But that is only a guess.