Will Self | Q&A with UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies (2017)

00:10 Our surveillance society is facilitated by citizens’ consent to allow companies to access their data while at the same time they are detached from the consequences that were foretold in novels such as Nineteen-Eighty Four and a Brave New World

03:23 I think it would be an absolute travesty if we stopped producing literature in Irish and if it were not taught in our schools and I’d hate to see the UK model being brought in here where the requirement for a second language in the GCSEs was abolished.

06.00 What books would you recommend to Donal Trump?

08.47 Ronald Reagan’s political career really began when he wrote a piece of long form prose called ‘A Time for Choosing’ in support of Barry Goldwater’s candidacy for President of the US.

If Ronald Reagan in his time and Barrack Obama were regarded as exceptional presidents largely based on the things they say, and the way they say it, do you think that says something that maybe modern culture isn’t as illiterate as you suggest?

13.18 Do you think people are going to be unable to read longform novels?

16:00 I was just wondering what you thought of the novel Huckleberry Finn. It is such a great novel and appears to have such as disastrous ending.

20.28 Is there something in political rhetoric that it can either bring out our worst selves or our best selves and that maybe that what Kennedy was doing – OK Sorensen was writing the speeches – but the effect of his rhetoric or the effect of Obama’s rhetoric, even if you don’t like the writing, is to maybe encourage in people the idea of rising to be their best selves – OK, there is a backlash to all that clearly, but if you have a moment when a politician is standing up, and encouraging the best in you, that there is a chance for something?
---

Will Self gives a lecture entitled ‘The Last Trump: Fiction in the Age of Uncertainty’ at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. The lecture was hosted by the University College Dublin Clinton Institute for American Studies.

Will Self is an English journalist, novelist, political commentator and satirist, and television personality.

His fiction is highly political and satirical, as well as being dystopian and grotesque and draws upon subject matter such as drug abuse and mental illness.

Prominent as an outspoken public intellectual, Self is also a regular contributor to The Guardian, The New York Times and the New Statesman and has also been a columnist for The Observer, The Times and the Evening Standard.

His 2012 novel Umbrella was shortlisted for the Man Booker fiction prize.

In 2012, he was appointed professor of Contemporary Thought at Brunel University.

The Royal Irish Academy is an all-Ireland academic body that promotes study and distinction in sciences, humanities and social sciences. It was founded in 1785.

UCD Twitter: http://twitter.com/ucddublin
UCD Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universitycollegedublin
UCD Instagram: http://instagram.com/ucddublin
UCD Homepage: http://www.ucd.ie

Видео Will Self | Q&A with UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies (2017) канала UCD - University College Dublin