Will Self on Radio 4

[Jazzrook]

Will Self on becoming a recluse(Radio 4, Tue 7 Jan, 9.30pm)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024cvm

JR

[Simon Biazeck]

I listened to this a few months ago. Brilliant polemic.

[smittims]

Thanks for the notice. I can't remember if it was Pascal or Descartes who said the most difficult thing for a man to do was sit in a room on his own and do nothing. But I do remember Sister Wendy Beckett saying that today a person can be entertained 24 hours a day, and this is 'dangerous, as it prevents us from confronting ourselves'. It seems to me that Will is doing both these two difficult things ; his talk comes at the right time, when more people than ever are obsessed with communicating continuously.

I'm fortunate in that I love being alone and have never felt lonely or bored. Over forty years ago I decided I would either marry and have a family or become a recluse. I chose the former and haven't regretted it, but I've always been fascinated with the possibilities of the alternative.

[vinteuil]

Thanks for the notice. I can't remember if it was Pascal or Descartes who said the most difficult thing for a man to do was sit in a room on his own and do nothing.

Blaise Pascal : « tout le malheur des hommes vient d’une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre »

[smittims]

Merci beaucoup !

[eighthobstruction]

Well I was just about to brave the outside (3pm a good time for engaging witrh young mums and pickers-up froms the local Primary and Preschool)....but no as I exited the house - a violent hail-storm followed by snow.
Will Self I feel has said all he's ever going to say and now it is repetition and not even repetition that is disguised (unless he actually goes down the shops in a cloak etc). This talk very staccato, disjointed (merely throwing in the word recluse every 100 words does not make a talk 'about' reclusion). I liked - "When we meet others , we put on a brave face".....Which very much like something I jotted onto a used envelope not 900cm from me at this moment - "A plethora of disorders hidden by a smile"...."My stiff upper lip (no matter being a hippy) has always manifested as asmile and a ridiculous quip"....and on a serviette "No time in eternity".... and thus I think Will is serving us up his serviettes, and the back of discarded envelopes from dogs charities or Aviva....
Still, I talk as a man who only got out of bed this morning because the Black Bats kept attacking his mind (BB's from back -Black Sheets from the front)....and was very soon after watching The Sun Also Rises.... Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner. Then I had a 2hour nap, and woke with an assailant on my back [sic] , with me unable to used or even move my arms - woke very tired and was going to go on this walk to fresh myself....but instead I am doing a Will Self...

[vinteuil]

.

... lord he's ever more and more a sneering self-regarding bore, so sure his view of existence is the answer.

he used to be quite fun

[Serial_Apologist]

Well I was just about to brave the outside (3pm a good time for engaging witrh young mums and pickers-up froms the local Primary and Preschool)....but no as I exited the house - a violent hail-storm followed by snow.
Will Self I feel has said all he's ever going to say and now it is repetition and not even repetition that is disguised (unless he actually goes down the shops in a cloak etc). This talk very staccato, disjointed (merely throwing in the word recluse every 100 words does not make a talk 'about' reclusion). I liked - "When we meet others , we put on a brave face".....Which very much like something I jotted onto a used envelope not 900cm from me at this moment - "A plethora of disorders hidden by a smile"...."My stiff upper lip (no matter being a hippy) has always manifested as asmile and a ridiculous quip"....and on a serviette "No time in eternity".... and thus I think Will is serving us up his serviettes, and the back of discarded envelopes from dogs charities or Aviva....
Still, I talk as a man who only got out of bed this morning because the Black Bats kept attacking his mind (BB's from back -Black Sheets from the front)....and was very soon after watching The Sun Also Rises.... Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner. Then I had a 2hour nap, and woke with an assailant on my back [sic] , with me unable to used or even move my arms - woke very tired and was going to go on this walk to fresh myself....but instead I am doing a Will Self...

He seems to approach reclusiveness more out of cynicism, Self-applied as much as to the quotidian generality, than in the spirit of communing with the moment - to which, being an ambulant, he does, as elsewhere, make passing reference (pun intended) - but the state comes across as a rock bottom last ditch, qualitatively no different from the near-death experience he mentions almost in passing. The general idea is by sensory attention to let go of the thinking process until the "profile" (Gestaltspeak) changes - the need for refreshment, a pee, etc.; Will is too attached to his genius for finding the right word to let go - but hey, maybe his sense of irony encompasses the reality that that word also arrives of its own volition? .

[oddoneout]

.

... lord he's ever more and more a sneering self-regarding bore, so sure his view of existence is the answer.

he used to be quite fun

Nominative determinism in action?

[Old Grumpy]

lord he's ever more and more a sneering self-regarding bore, so sure his view of existence is the answer.

he used to be quite fun

Not sure he was ever fun. IIRC he and Deborah Orr used to each have a column in the early days of the Independent. Hers were very interesting, his definitely not!