Will Self

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David Lynch interview

August 27, 2011

“I’ll tell you how much I admire David Lynch as an artist, and how influential I consider his work to have been – not only for me personally, but also an entire swathe of Western culture. However, first let me give you a snapshot of the jejune Self coming face to face with his creative hero. It was 1989, in Notting Hill in London, in a gaff called 192, the wine bar of the moment (yes, such a concept still obtained in those matte-black days). Think cocaine as a near-novelty, think shoulder pads, think conical white sconces and shirts buttoned to the collar (a style Lynch himself still affects). I was dining with friends, I was recently married, I’d yet to publish a book and had a day job in a publishing company.

“I seethed with the injustice of it all (there was, in point of fact, no injustice). Then Lynch walked in: tall, blondish hair en brosse, apart from the whistle, and the buttoned-up shirt, looking every inch the Boise, Idaho farm boy he kinda … sorta was.

“I nearly fell off my three-legged designer chair I was so overcome with reverence and the Lynchian serendipity of all – for at that very moment my friends and I had been discussing the unalloyed brilliance of a new series that was being screened on hokey old British TV, a series called Twin Peaks – a title at once prosaic and enigmatic – that had been made by none other than the man who now stood just feet away from me.

“And there, in a nutshell, is my understanding of what it is to be truly influential: creating a body of work so powerful, so possessed of its own quiddity, and yet so resonant of the world, that the adjectival form of its maker becomes a given. (Franz) Kafkaesque, (Francis) Baconian – both are adjectives that Lynch himself admires, and can be applied to his own work, but Lynchian has an X factor – it is more than the sum of these, or any other parts.

“Did I go up to him and introduce myself, say how much I’d admired his work over the years since I first saw Eraserhead in 1977, while huffing amyl nitrate in the old Classic 1-2-3 Cinema on London’s Tottenham Court Road? Did I hell – I cowered under the table.”

Read the rest of Will Self’s interview with David Lynch from December 2008, now available on the GQ website here.

Will’s Latest Book

Will Self - Elaine
Will Self's latest book Elaine will be published in hardback by Grove on September 5 2024 in the UK and September 17 2024 in the USA.

You can pre-order at Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Will’s Previous Books

Will Self - Will
Will
More info
Amazon.co.uk

  Will Self - Phone
Phone
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Shark
Shark
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Umbrella
Umbrella
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being A Prawn Cracker
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being A Prawn Cracker
More info
Amazon.co.uk
  Walking To Hollywood
Walking To Hollywood
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
The Butt
The Butt
More info Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Grey Area
Grey Area
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Junk Mail
Junk Mail
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Great Apes
Great Apes
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Cock And Bull
Cock And Bull
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  The Quantity Theory Of Insanity
The Quantity Theory Of Insanity
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
The Sweet Smell Of Psychosis
The Sweet Smell of Psychosis
More info

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  My Idea Of Fun
My Idea Of Fun
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
The Book Of Dave
The Book Of Dave
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Psychogeography
Psychogeography
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Psycho Too
Psycho II
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Liver
Liver
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
How The Dead Live
How The Dead Live
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys
Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Dr Mukti And Other Tales Of Woe
Dr Mukti And Other Tales Of Woe
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Dorian
Dorian
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Feeding Frenzy
Feeding Frenzy
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  Sore Sites
Sore Sites
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Perfidious Man
Perfidious Man
More info
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
  The Undivided Self
The Undivided Self
More info Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Bloomsbury  
Penguin

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