Matt Colquhoun's Blog, page 9

Are We Narcissistic Enough?: XG on Repeater Media

I recently spoke to Adam, Craig and Will for the Zer0 Books and Repeater Media YouTube channel. We talk about the new book and unpacked not only my reading of the selfie but how it is informed by Gothic Materialism, German idealism and the work of Max Stirner, Foucault’s technologies of self, and a bunch […]

The Monkey

The monkey on your back, as they say — an intriguing analogy for a burdensome problem or perhaps an addition. I wonder if this old idiom works well as a nod to the primitive brain, for the unconscious as it sits within the body, like a parasite on the spinal cord, filtering out messages and […]

New Tenderness 015

You can now listen back to episode fifteen of my New Tenderness show on Slack’s radio. I hadn’t been into the studio for a while, on account of working most weekends, so when the opportunity arose to get in the booth on a Saturday evening, I jumped at it — despite not really having real […]

Narcissus in Bloom: Event at Hoxton Books

I’ll be back down in London next month for an event at Hoxton Books, where I’ll be reading from my new book Narcissus in Bloom, signing copies and also having a Q&A session. The event is open to all, so come on down. You can find more information here on the Repeater Books website.

Who Really Invented the Selfie: XG in LitHub

A huge thank you to everyone who came to last week’s book launch events in London and Newcastle. Both evenings were lovely and it was great to talk to so many people and sign some books. A special thank you to Michael Waugh for all of his support and friendship this year and for prompting […]

Fingernails

I paint my fingernails black naively, no real sense of what I’m doing. WikiHow shows me how later, but I am yet to acquire the patience needed to let them properly dry. They look bad. I walk down to the local shop for nail polish remover and cotton pads. Polish removed, black stains still linger […]

“The Rediscovery of Circadian Rhythms”: Philip Maughan in Noema Mag

Philip Maughan has written a fascinating article for Noema magazine on how and why humans have manipulated their circadian rhythms, especially recently. Philip and I spoke briefly over email a few weeks back, as Philip had come across two of my blogposts from 2019, documenting the time I was part of a “triple chronotherapy” trial […]

New Tenderness 014

As ever on New Tenderness, we’re making another drastic sonic shift this month. Last month’s show was my set from the Itty Bitty No Titty Kitty on June 9th at the Lubber Fiend, and now we’re fast approaching August and so much has changed. After a few solid months of dancing and listening to jungle, […]

Narcissus in Bloom: Book Launch Events in London and Newcastle

My new book, Narcissus in Bloom, will be published on August 8th, in less than two weeks’ time. There are two launch events scheduled. The first will take place on August 9th at the Royal George in Deptford. I will be in conversation with Newcastle University’s Dr Michael Waugh in conjunction with an exhibition at […]

“I Don’t Know How to Feel”: Untangling the Hypofiction of Barbie

Spoilers, duh. Barbie is a lot of fun. It’s high-camp, daringly self-referential (and that’s saying something) social commentary with dance numbers and the most accurate joke about fascism you’ll find in a film in 2023. But on sitting through the closing credits, as we are shown glimpses of all the varieties of Barbie referenced in […]