The Burning Leg
Posted by Chris H on February 20th, 2010Self has written the foreword to The Burning Leg: Walking Scenes from Classic Fiction by Duncan Minshull, which will be published on April 30 by the Hesperus Press.
Archive for the 'Introductions' Category
Revelation introduction
Posted by Chris H on January 27th, 2010Canongate has published the full text of Will Self’s introduction to Revelation, published in 1998, and dedicated to his friend Ben Trainin.
Introduction to Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We
Posted by Chris H on November 18th, 2009You can read Will Self’s introduction to Zamyatin’s cult classic novel, We, at Random House here.
Riddley Walker
Posted by Chris H on September 23rd, 2009You can find Will Self’s introduction to Russell Hoban’s masterpiece, Riddley Walker, here, which has obvious parallels with Self’s The Book of Dave.
Little People In The City: The Street Art Of Slinkachu
Posted by Chris M on September 19th, 2008
Little People In The City – Slinkachu
See all books by Slinkachu at
Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
Will has written the foreword to Little People In The City: The Street Art Of Slinkachu – read on for more info.
Foreword to Nick Cave: The Complete Lyrics
Posted by Chris H on April 29th, 2008
The Complete Lyrics – Nick Cave
See all books by
Nick Cave at
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Will Self’s Foreword to Nick Cave: The Complete Lyrics
Some 20 years ago, I had a long wrangle with the music writer Barney Hoskyns about the relative virtues of rock lyricists. Barney’s view was (and I hope I’m not traducing him in any way) that simplicity was the key. The structure of pop songs – most of which derive from the holy miscegenation of the English ballad form and the eight-bar blues – the importance to them of melody and their fairly short duration: all of these factors meant that facile rhymes, basic narratives and straightforward sentiments made for the best lyrics.
Alasdair Gray – 1982, Janine
Posted by Chris M on January 29th, 2006Will Self wrote an introduction for the Canongate edition of Alasdair Gray’s book.
Synopis:
An unforgettably challenging book about power and powerlessness, men and women, masters and servants, small countries and big countries, Alasdair Gray’s exploration of the politics of pornography has lost none of its power to shock. Disliked by some and praised by others, 1982 Janine is a searing portrait of male need and inadequacy, as explored via the lonely sexual fantasies of Jock McLeish, failed husband, lover and business man. Yet there is hope here, too, and the humour (if black) and the imaginative and textual energy of the narrative achieves its own kind of redemption in the end.
David Shrigley – Why We Got The Sack From The Museum
Posted by Chris M on January 29th, 2006
David Shrigley – Why We Got The Sack From The Museum
Will Self wrote the introduction for David Shrigley’s book of drawings and observations.
William Burroughs: Junky
Posted by Chris M on January 12th, 2006Penguin 2002 edition
Introduction by Will Self
[Read Will's introductory essay online]
William Burroughs – Junky
Synopsis
‘Junk is not, like alcohol or a weed, a means to increased enjoyment of life. Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life.’ In this complete and unexpurgated edtion of Burroughs’ famous book, he depicts the addict’s life: his hallucinations, his ghostly noctural wanderings, his strange sexuality and his hunger for the needle. Junky remains one of the most accurate and mesmerising account of addiction ever written.
Alisdair Gray: An Introduction
Posted by Chris M on January 12th, 2006[This essay appears in the British Library edition of Essays on Alasdair Gray, edited by Phil Moores. Reproduced by kind permission of the British Library. © The British Library 2002]
A letter arrives from Phil Moores whose address is listed as follows: British Library, Customer Services, Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire. He encloses a selection of essays about the work of the Scottish novelist, artist, poet and politico- philosophic eminence grise, Alasdair Gray. You are holding this book in your hand so you know what those essays are, but picture to yourself (and let it be a Gray illustration, all firm, flowing pen-and-ink lines, precise adumbration, colour – if at all – in smooth, monochrome blocks), my own investigation of these enclosures.
