I can never get comfortable in a church. I don’t know if it’s because I’m too large for the pews, or merely because I’m a heathen. Last night, however, I was in discomfort as I listened to a debate between Martin Amis, John Banville and Will Self about “Writing in the 21st Century”. This was the first of many proposed public Amis events following his appointment at Manchester University’s Centre for New Writing.

It was an entertaining, lively and informative evening, with the three authors all on great form. Amis began by detailing the love relationship between the reader and the writer, and used Joyce’s Finnegans Wake as an example of when that relationship breaks down. Self, for the first time of many during the debate, disagreed with Amis, saying he hated the reader, but also that he “wants to have sex with the reader, to stroke the reader and to pummel the reader.”

Amis went on to argue that, more than ever before, the fiction writer is present within history, using examples of terror and global warming as influences on the novels being written today. He lamented critics calling for a moratorium on such subjects, warning they will have to get used to more novels of this type. Banville, on the other hand, claimed it was time for the literary novel to return to something that was enjoyed by the minority, with no book tours, readings or interviews. This was apparently the case when Amis and Banville began writing back in the early Seventies.

Will Self made some astute points about people wanting to become writers in the 21st Century because they think it’s a way of dropping out of the corporate culture. He likened being a writer to being a coal miner in the Forest of Dean, but one who owns his own mine. This metaphor broke down when he admitted that while the writer escapes having a boss, they are still condemned to a life of typing.

This is a very boiled down report on an evening that took in such subjects as the book versus technology, the purpose of critics and the press, and the writer as priest. If the quality of this evening was anything to go by, then I look forward to the many events Manchester University promises in coming months.