Will Self vs. Iain Sinclair
I don’t know how I missed this, but I just found an entertaining transcript of a discussion between Will Self and Iain Sinclair. Will Self, of course, adores Sinclair and would love to have his visionary integrity. Sinclair, on the other hand, disdains Self’s hack ‘PsychoGeography’ and his status as an intellectual gadfly. The discussion ends with this cutting attack on Self’s prostitution of whatever talent he had:
Self: As a producer of dense literary creations I feel like a psychic tweed jacket -with a leather elbow-pad cranked across my mouth – but as the glib hack I feel absolutely at one with everybody and quite comfortable in myself, and I’ve trousered the money of course.
Sinclair: In How the Dead Live the ghosts of aborted souls cling to the present; when you die rings of people cluster round your neck and shoulders. I can see your old columns embedding their scythes into your back…
Self: That’s very savage, and frankly quite hostile, but I’m just going to have to live with it… I’ll probably wake up screaming tomorrow…
Link: Will Self vs. Iain Sinclair at Spoiled Ink