Blitcon

Blitcon is a collective portmanteau term invented to describe the political tendencies of Britain's three most prominent novelists (British literary neoconservatives). It was first used by Ziauddin Sardar in December 2006.

Writing in the British left-leaning political weekly the "New Statesman", Sardar charged that Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan "dominate British literature - and they're convinced that Islam threatens civilisation as we know it". While the triumvirate's generational sway over the commanding heights of British literary affairs is largely undisputed, the novelists' approaches to and descriptions of Islamism could be seen as more nuanced than Sardar's contentious article gave them credit.Fact|date=November 2007

Amis, Rushdie and McEwan were also included in the original 1983 Granta "Best of Young British Novelists" list. Amis also served as the literary editor of the "New Statesman", where he worked alongside Christopher Hitchens, another dubbed "neo-con" on occasion.

External links

* [http://www.newstatesman.com/print/200612110045] 'Welcome to Planet Blitcon', Ziauddin Sardar, "New Statesman", 11 December 2006
* [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/robert_mccrum/2006/12/post_764.html] 'Planet Blitcon? It doesn't exist', Robert McCrum, Comment is free, 7 December 2006