Will Self: Why Read in a Digital Age?

Will Self in conversation with Nolan Dalrymple during the tenth Berwick Literary Festival, October 2023.

[@shame69]

Thank you for uploading this roaringly fine jabberthon! "Re-writing on screen is like painting on water". Will Self is a rare treasure.

[@hannahhume8164]

very rare. Who else strikes you as a treasure in this sense?

[@shame69]

@@hannahhume8164 Ooh, that's put me on the spot. Off the top of my head - Miranda July, John Kennedy Toole, Francis Wheen (OK, granted, he's a journalist but 'Strange Days Indeed' and 'How Mumbo-Jumbo...' are written like thrillers), the early, funny, waspish Evelyn Waugh novels, Lewis Carroll. Who floats your boat?

[@paulkossak7761]

Been a fan since reading " My idea of fun"

[@Painterly-fv1jp]

Despite his occasionally irritating verbiage Will's comments on contemporary fiction are spot on. Especially the fact that the only fiction that seems popular in the modern era is often popular because of political reasons that are often exterior to the work itself. I have hope that people will still be drawn to older forms of media, and perhaps more so than now, as everything internet based becomes more and more hyper-regulated and homogeneous in its own way. Distinctly human and less mediated art will become a slightly rarer thing, and hopefully more valuable in some quarters.

[@MikeFuller-ok6ok]

Psychologically, buying a book from a shop, physically holding a book, and even the book's smell, is a more fulfilling experience than downloading from a computer or mobile phone, and just staring at a screen. The same applies to buying records, tapes and CDs from shops than downloading and listening on a mobile phone or computer.

[@estebancomulet]

I love Will but honestly where the hell is he??? Hasn't appeared on telly in years. Didn't even know he had a new book out. He was the sole reason I would occasionally watch Question Time.

[@alannolan3514]

'your goalie works in greggs' greatest chant ever : Celtic v Berwick R !

[@patrickwhite8144]

(43:25) 20 books in a week at Oxford University? From cover to cover? Surely not? That's 2.8 books per day! Is there anyone here that can read three novels in a day? I could possibly read one medium sized novel in a day if that was all I did.

[@geoffreynhill2833]

I stil yooz dicshunriz to chek spellins 🤔(Author "Green Fire: Tommy & Ruthie's Blues", distributor IngramSpark, bookshops UK/US) 🌈🦉

[@geoffreynhill2833]

PS: I've stopped wandering around now that people on their cellphones keep bumping into me.

[@prasantbanerjee8199]

"Evincing evidence?"

[@robrhyner2949]

Wincing, but easy to say and then wince.

[@stephensharp3033]

Will Self uses too many words. Why read him?

[@johnmulligan455]

No, he uses lots of long words that seem out of place. The best writers don't do this. It's pretentious nonsense ​@user-ji1tu3qi5j

[@johnmulligan455]

@user-ji1tu3qi5j words cannot hurt me. I've read more books than insults you've dished out.

[@DCI-Frank-Burnside]

His novels can be interminable, but I enjoy reading his short stories. He's rather like a cerebral Clive Barker in his depiction of urban decay.

[@eddyk2016]

Yeah I bought some of his books, I found them to be unreadable. I didn’t have a clue what he was trying to say. I’ll stick to Mr Waugh and Kingsley Amiss ect

[@johnmulligan455]

He wants to be Sebald. @@eddyk2016

[@dirtycelinefrenchman]

I’m 39 and just now discovering the meaning of “sensual immersion in landscape” and so only just realizing retrospectively what I’ve missed out on - what was being lost - as I giddily and unquestioningly rode the amusement park spectacle of media and techno-advancement over my lifetime.

[@dirtycelinefrenchman]

That was quite a little Sebald riff at the end