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’'

Just because you can’t overnight clothes to Paris anymore doesn’t mean media is dead

Two digital media veterans say the industry isn’t dying, just taking a different shape. Bleak headlines about the demise of the media world seem to appear almost daily. Is it possible for digital media to even survive?Read Full Story Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2019-11-07 16:45:58 UTC ]
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Panel Mania: Two Dead by Van Jensen and Nate Powell

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-11-06 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Little, Brown scoops book by 'Trump resistance' White House insider

Little, Brown is publishing a book from the anonymous senior official who wrote a New York Times op ed claiming to be part of “the resistance" inside Donald Trump's White House. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-23 07:27:05 UTC ]
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Dead Reckoning, Marvel Team to Publish ‘Atlas at War’ Combat Comics

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-10-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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This man is disrupting the cult of the billionaire

Author Anand Giridharadas is rebuking the idea that philanthropic billionaires are society’s heroes. Even some plutocrats are starting to agree with him. A black suburban dispatched by MSNBC’s Morning Joe is idling outside best-selling author Anand Giridharadas’s Brooklyn apartment when I arrive... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2019-10-21 07:00:57 UTC ]
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This man is disrupting the cult of the billionaire

Natural Light Seltzer runs first TV ads as it chases market leader White Claw

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[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-18 21:39:48 UTC ]
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Pulitzer Prize-winner Ronan Farrow does goofy voices in his dead-serious MeToo audiobook

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[ Fast Company | 2019-10-16 14:20:58 UTC ]
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In ‘The Man Who Saw Everything,’ Deborah Levy questions our notions of reality

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[ The Washington Post | 2019-10-15 20:26:04 UTC ]
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Miranda Jewess to launch Viper imprint with White, Jackson and Valentine

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-15 12:07:38 UTC ]
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Life lessons from a mole — and the man who made a living catching them

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[ The Washington Post | 2019-10-14 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Dead Ink buys Alison Irvine's Cat Step

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-14 02:38:41 UTC ]
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The Dog Man Books: A Guide for Parents and Teachers

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[ Book Riot | 2019-10-13 10:32:19 UTC ]
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How to become an ex-black man

Review of 'Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race' by Thomas Chatterton Williams Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-10-11 14:00:17 UTC ]
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How to become an ex-black man

Review of 'Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race' by Thomas Chatterton Williams Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-10-11 14:00:17 UTC ]
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How to become an ex-black man

Review of 'Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race' by Thomas Chatterton Williams Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-10-11 14:00:17 UTC ]
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S&S UK promotes White to Scribner editorial director

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-11 05:32:30 UTC ]
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Miami Book Fair 2019: A Man with a Mission

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-10-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2019-10-09 12:04:38 UTC ]
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The Deadly 1918 Flu Epidemic Gets a Fresh Treatment

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[ The New York Times | 2019-10-07 16:04:59 UTC ]
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