Will Self's Blog, page 39

Cities, Suburbs and Edgelands

Watch thepolitical philosopher John Gray and Will Self discussing JG Ballard’s work, his cities and his legacy in this Festival of Ideas talk from 2011, here.

A Point of View: It’s Always the Others Who Die

You can listen to Will Self’s latest A Point of View broadcast on Radio 4 here, or read it here.

KCRW radio interview

Listen to an interview with Will Self about Umbrella on KCRW (of Santa Monica College) here.

I love Germany

“The time comes in any upright British male’s life when he needs to have made his peace with all of the following: his homosexuality, his dress sense, and Germany. The first two of these I got out of the way decades ago (true, I still occasionally wake up in the morning and flirt with becoming a dandy for the few short seconds before the stiff denim of consciousness descends on me), but Germany has proved more problematic.

“It doesn’t help that I’m half-Jewish, although we can make too much of...

Nightwaves – Guy Debord

Listen to Will Self talking about Guy Debord and Situationism on Radio 3′s Nightwaves here at the 35 minute mark.

The Society of the Spectacle – introduction

Will Self has written a long introduction to Notting Hill Editions’ small and beautifully formed new hardback publication of Guy Debord’s Situationist masterpieceThe Society of the Spectacle, originally published in 1967.

“Never before has Debord’s work seemed quite as relevant as it does now, in the permanent present that he so accurately foretold. Open it, read it, be amazed, pour yourself a glass of supermarket wine – as he would wish – and then forget all about it, which is what the Specta...

A Point of View: Rebuilding after 9/11

Listen to Will Self’s latest A Point of View tonight on Radio 4 at 8.50pm here.

Real meals: Mr Bartley’s Gourmet Burgers

On the dockside in Boston I spotted Fia’s Seafood – they were offering “twin lobsters” for $28.95; I ventured in and asked if the lobsters were identical or non-identical twins. “Why d’you wanna know?” the maître d’ snarled. “Because,” I replied, “I can only perform unnatural psychological experiments on them if they’re zygotic.”

The president was in town for a speech and the area around the State House was fraught with security: state cops on cliché Harleys, FBI agents in cliché letter jacket...

The Long Drop – a new short story

For the 300th issue of ShortList magazine, they asked their favourite writers to create an original noir story that had to be exactly 300 words long. Read Will Self’s, The Long Drop, here, and the rest here.

A Point of View: Behind the hijab

Read Will Self’s latest A Point of View for Radio 4 here, or listen to it here.