As part of Shakespeare and Company‘s celebration of the centenary publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Will reads the first episode, which you can listen to here. Listen to the rest of the readings of the novel here when they become available.
Will Self’s fantasy dinner party
Frankly, any dinner party is a fantasy to me nowadays. I was pretty disaffected from the polite pissing contest that constitutes the average middle-class munch-fest long before the pandemic, but the past couple of years have seen the psychic equivalent of sticky tape printed with “POLICE CRIME SCENE” stretched across this particular zone of sociality. So it’s with considerable pleasure that I retreat into a purely fantastical one.
Mark Francois’ Spartan Victory is illiteracy on parade
Will’s review of Mark Francois’ self-published memoir in the New European.
Interview with Our Struggle podcast
On the betrayal of Afghanistan
Will’s latest column for The New European.
Radio 4 bonanza
If you missed Will’s Point of View, A Sense of Home, on Radio 4 earlier on, you can listen again here.
Also on Radio 4, Will returns to the Moral Maze for a special end-of-year debate on Meaning, with Rowan Williams, Alice Roberts and Bonnie Greer on 29 December at 8pm.
Sastrugi: a new short story
Pick up a copy of the brand new INQUE magazine to read Will’s new short story. Other contributors include Margaret Atwood, Max Porter, Joyce Carol Oates, Ocean Vuong, Tom Waits, Ben Lerner, Alexander Chee, Kae Tempest and Hanif Kureishi.
A journey to the bottom of my bin bag
“Click-clack goes the kitchen bin flap and it’s as if some definitive barrier has fallen into place in our minds and we forget — we forget about our rubbish. You may be like me, and have a dedicated recycling bin in your kitchen as well, in which case where you deposit your detritus delivers you either a little positive stroke — see how virtuous I am, carefully discarding this cardboard packaging — or a tiny demerit: perhaps I should have exhaustively washed out that yoghurt pot, so as to avoid it going up in smoke?
On prejudices
Confirmation bias and its role in culture and society.
On driving too fast
In this week’s Multicultural Man column, Will writes about his second speed-awareness course, this time a virtual experience.
