My love affair with nicotine
The Society of the Spectacle – introduction
Will Self has written a long introduction to Notting Hill Editions’ small and beautifully formed new hardback publication of Guy Debord’s Situationist masterpiece The Society of the Spectacle, originally published in 1967.
“Never before has Debord’s work seemed quite as relevant as it does now, in the permanent present that he so accurately foretold. Open it, read it, be amazed, pour yourself a glass of supermarket wine – as he would wish – and then forget all about it, which is what the Spectacle wants.”
You can buy a copy for £10 from the Notting Hill Edition website here.
A shorter, edited version of Will’s introduction can be read here at the Guardian Review.
You can also watch The Society of the Spectacle film from 1973 here:
Will Self and Iain Sinclair on London Unfurled
The Observer carries a piece featuring Will Self’s and Iain Sinclair’s forewords to the London Unfurled book by Matteo Pericoli. There is also a London Unfurled iPad app to which Will has contributed.
The Essential David Shrigley
“I am a regular if not exactly enthusiastic patron of my local bookshop. I try to buy at least some books there because I cling to the belief that it’s important to maintain those businesses that put a human face on the exchange of money for goods and services. If we bought everything on the internet, our eyes and mouths and nostrils would probably begin to film over with a tegument – one initially tissue-thin and capable of being removed each morning, but which gradually thickened and hardened until we were imprisoned in our own tiny minds.
“Anyway, over the years I’ve not exactly grown friendly with the staff of the bookshop, but we do tolerate one another. They know I’m a writer – obviously – and they do me the kindness of displaying signed copies of my books in their window. On a couple of occasions I’ve even given readings at the shop. What I’m trying to say is that this is a functioning relationship, albeit one of a circumscribed kind: I write books; they sell books; I buy books from them (although not my own, because I know what’s in those ones already).
“Then, perhaps a year or two ago, one of the men who works in the bookshop told me he had written a book and asked me if I would take a look at it. This happens to me quite a lot – some people are looking for advice or assistance to get their work published, others simply require a generalised affirmation. None of them, I suspect, is looking for genuine and heartfelt criticism such as: Your book is dreadful, you are wholly without talent, please never try to do this again – although I’m glad you showed me this, for, having established quite how vile it is I have been able to burn it and so stop it falling into the hands of someone less worldly-wise and more vulnerable than me, who might be so depressed by your execrable efforts that they self-harmed or committed suicide.”
The Essential David Shrigley is published by Canongate Books for £20. Read the rest of Will Self’s introduction to the book here.
The Colossus of Maroussi
There will be a new introduction to Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi written by Will Self to be published on May 18 by New Directions.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
Will Self has written in introduction for The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne by Visual Editions, a new London-based book publisher. The book, which is designed by A Practice for Everyday Life, is due out in June.
The Burning Leg
Self 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.
Revelation introduction
Canongate 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
You can read Will Self’s introduction to Zamyatin’s cult classic novel, We, at Random House here.
