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This week, Rob and Kate are mainly focussing on Will Self’s recent article in which he discusses the “death” of serious fiction in novel form, but they start by mentioning the winner of the Bad Grammar Award.
Read the finalists of the Bad Grammar award here http://idler.co.uk/news/tesco-wins-bad-grammar-award/ and catch up on Will Self’s original article here http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/02/will-self-novel-dead-literary-fiction
Rob and Kate chat about the main points that Will Self makes, and what they think of his argument – beware, we do get a little heated!
We’d love to hear what you think – is the novel going to die because people can’t concentrate on reading any more? Does it matter than lit-fic is niche? Leave as a comment and tell us your thoughts.
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Episode 93. An Adventures With Words production.
Self’s article was a little dramatic wasn’t it, it felt more rant about technology and how things change. He felt more resistant to the change of his preferred status quo than the actual state of literature – whatever that may be. I definitely agree with you in that there is a wiff of class snobbery in his article.
Slightly off-topic, Will Self sort of epitomises the ultimate hipster, without even trying. Which sounds like I am being critical, which I’m not, I just find that interesting.
Fantastic podcast, completely agree with your points on the nature of reading.
I found that the headline ‘The Novel is Dead’, didn’t really fit the rest of the article. But you are right, things change and he doesn’t! – Rob