Einstein's Monsters
| Author | Martin Amis |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Nonfiction and Short Stories |
| Publisher | Vintage |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Einstein's Monsters (1987) is a collection of short stories by British writer Martin Amis. Each of the five stories deals with the subject of nuclear weapons.
"Thinkability"
The book is introduced with an essay entitled "Thinkability", which argues that many previous efforts at writing about nuclear warfare are flawed (with the notable exceptions of Jonathan Schell's The Fate of the Earth and The Abolition) because they presume that the damages of nuclear warfare can be placed into proportion and therefore debated about, mitigated, even justified. Amis contends that the magnitude of nuclear warfare is so inconceivable that such presumption is immoral and "subhuman", and that writers are only beginning to learn how to write about them properly. (He writes: "My impression is that the subject resists frontal assault.")
The five stories are: