Will Self: ‘I’m seen as a still-walking dead white man’

The novelist on his new collection of journalism, why he regrets criticising Sally Rooney and how he’s never shaken off the influence of JG Ballard“I’ll see your eidolon next Tuesday,” writes Will Self, 61, when I email to arrange a video call to discuss his new collection of journalism, Why Read: Selected Writings 2001-2021, which is centred on the concern (as he later told me, or my on-screen spirit-image) that “people are dumbing down their entire response to their own culture by their unfettered use of social media”. Self’s 26 previous books include Umbrella, shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2012, and its sequels Shark and Phone, the latter a single 624-page paragraph which the Telegraph called an “epic anti-tweet”. Speaking from his home in south London, he said he liked the description “because the book was a deliberate attempt to call people’s attention to what was being lost by the digital. I don’t think the Umbrella trilogy is that hard to read at all; it’s only hard to read in contrast to a tweet. By Donald Trump!”How did you pick the pieces in Why Read?Until fairly recently, certainly since 2001, I probably wrote an average of 150,000 words of journalism every year, so there’s a vast amount to choose from. My New York editor said that in the age of the web, collections like this need a theme or else readers feel they’re just getting a grab bag they could’ve sourced themselves. So the emphasis fell on the impact on reading and writing of what I choose to call... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2022-11-26 18:00:32 UTC ]
News tagged with: #south london #deliberate attempt #readers feel #grab bag #observer order #delivery charges #books include

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Will Self: ‘I’m seen as a still-walking dead white man’'

Mclaughlin, Scott and Thomas made editors at White Review

Rosanna Mclaughlin, Izabella Scott and Skye Arundhati Thomas have been confirmed as the new editors of literary magazine the White Review.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-20 09:34:08 UTC ]
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Dead Ink bags Missouri's dystopian debut

Dead Ink Books and Farrar Straus & Giroux (FSG) are to publish Missouri Williams’ "brilliant and depraved" debut novel The Doloriad next year, with FSG's MCD imprint publishing in the US.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-15 03:38:21 UTC ]
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Black & White picks up two more from Maskame

Black & White Publishing has acquired Estelle Maskame’s seventh YA novel, Becoming Mila, to be published on the 6th May 2021 as the first book in a two-part series.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-13 09:24:34 UTC ]
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Gabriel Byrne’s ‘Walking with Ghosts’ is a revelation in unexpected ways

The acclaimed actor’s memoir takes us far from Hollywood to his Irish childhood. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-01-12 13:00:00 UTC ]
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We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper, Read by the Author

Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. Author and narrator Becky Cooper’s true-crime audiobook, We Keep the Dead Close, chronicles... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-30 09:46:52 UTC ]
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For Vice Media, bad-boy news culture is dead, long live news

Vice Media spent 2020 putting news more at the forefront of its brand, but it still has work to do positioning itself in the digital media landscape. The post For Vice Media, bad-boy news culture is dead, long live news appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2020-12-30 05:01:28 UTC ]
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Flynn to narrate W&N's Octopus Man audiobook

Actor Johnny Flynn will narrate the audiobook of The Octopus Man by Jasper Gibson.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-17 17:21:47 UTC ]
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Ben Bova, Science Fiction Editor and Author, Is Dead at 88

As editor of the magazines Analog and Omni, he was a champion of a new generation of authors, including George R.R. Martin. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-12-14 19:27:29 UTC ]
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Melania Trump’s post-White House book might not be a memoir after all, which is fine.

For a while, Melania Trump has teased that she might write a book after the Trump family exits the White House. I, like many, had mixed feelings. On one hand, it’d be interesting to see the Trump administration from the point of the view of the famously sullen First Lady; but on the other hand,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-10 18:18:04 UTC ]
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A feminist critiques movies by and about White guys — but why?

Lindy West rewatches mediocre Hollywood blockbusters and, surprise, finds them lacking. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-12-04 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Black America, White violence and generations of unhealed wounds

In visceral essays, Michael Eric Dyson explains the unrest after George Floyd’s killing. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-12-04 13:00:00 UTC ]
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‘Red, White and Blue’ subject Leroy Logan talks ‘Small Axe,’ John Boyega and his new memoir

The real-life inspiration for Steve McQueen’s “Red, White and Blue” documents his career in law enforcement in “Closing Ranks: My Life as a Cop.” Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-12-04 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Ijeoma Oluo’s ‘Mediocre’ dissects white supremacy in America. She’d rather be writing about something else.

“It takes a huge toll to live the trauma of being a Black person in a white-supremacist country and then write it as well,” Oluo says. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-12-03 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Ijeoma Oluo’s new book interrogates white male mediocrity

In her latest book, out now, Oluo examines the cultural and political underpinnings of what she calls the “mediocre-white-man-industrial complex.” As protests against police brutality and racial injustice swept the country this summer, Ijeoma Oluo’s debut book, So You Want to Talk About Race was... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2020-12-02 06:00:29 UTC ]
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‘Eddie’s Boy,’ by Thomas Perry, continues the saga of a retired hit man who can’t escape his past

One of Perry’s unique talents is his ability to tell the same story over and over again, while finding ways to make it fresh and absorbing. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-29 06:53:26 UTC ]
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Zeyn Joukhadar’s ‘The Thirty Names of Night’ is a poetic portrait of a trans man’s search for a rare bird — and his own identity

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[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-23 11:57:29 UTC ]
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Long unsolved, a Harvard murder case gets a fresh look in ‘We Keep the Dead Close’

Becky Cooper’s book is both a true-crime tale and a quest for justice for the victim. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-16 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Considering Malcolm X and the Perfect Black Man

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[ The New York Times | 2020-11-13 10:00:01 UTC ]
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Susie Yang’s ‘White Ivy’ is an entertaining character study of a social climber with a secret

Yang’s debut novel owes a debt to Edith Wharton’s “The House of Mirth,” though Ivy Lin is no Lily Bart. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-05 16:42:29 UTC ]
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Reading Nicole Krauss’s ‘To Be a Man’ feels like talking all night with a brilliant friend

Krauss’s four previous novels proved she’s a writer’s writer; her new story collection cements her reputation. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-05 14:31:07 UTC ]
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