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WILL SELF TRUTHERISM THREAD:
Will Self - prominent journo, writer, item of curiousity to britpoppers seeking New, Radical Ideas (Different Perspectives), and most importantly, the sort of Public Figure invited on to Question Time at the highs of the high britpoppery period. I'm certain that Self is a fraud.
Self's grand deception lies in his carefully cultivated image as a 'Droll, Tortured' Intellekshual
. The claim is that William (always a rebellious, but bright boy), radical, experimental, ended up getting into drugs to, idk, escape capitalist alienation or something like that.
. The claim is that William (always a rebellious, but bright boy), radical, experimental, ended up getting into drugs to, idk, escape capitalist alienation or something like that.
From wiki: "Self was a voracious reader from a young age. Into his teenage years, Self claimed to have been "overawed by the canon", stifling his ability to express himself. Nevertheless, Self's dabbling with drugs grew in step with his prolific reading...
Self started smoking cannabis at the age of 12, graduating through amphetamines, cocaine, and LSD to heroin, which he started injecting at 18. Self struggled with mental health issues during this period, and aged 20 became a hospital outpatient."
Now, I am someone who is merely looking from the outside in to the Wacky Rigmarole of Upper Normie life and cozy independent school England...
But the idea that the University College School (Hampstead) then Christ's College (Finchley), then whilst at Oxford, Self would become addicted to *heroin* of all drugs isn't very believable to me.
The obvious question is why might Self lie in this way? My theory is that Self is one of the many Christopher Hitchens larpers of the time. Look at him, isn't he darkly witty, the archetypal "tormented intellectual"?
By the beginning of Self's career, Hitchens fever** was in full swing. Especially by the aforementioned high britpoppery period of the "mainstream" coincided with New Atheism, internet debates, and the hitchens-esque vogue nihilistic hedonism "on the fringes".
**Hitchens Fever meaning a certain demand for Kurt Cobain Intellectuals, not just the man himself.
How do you one-up the fat, chain-smoking, alcoholic, 'Droll, Tormented Intellekshual' of your day? Why, heroin, obviously. Except the young addict (especially one at *gasp* Oxford) is also far more romantic than the old fat guy.
Barmy Will: "In 1989, "through a series of accidents", he "blagged" his way into running a small publishing company." Self joined the Observer as a columnist in 1995.He gained negative publicity in 1997 when he was sent to cover the election campaign of John Major and was ...
caught by a rival journalist using heroin on the Prime Minister's jet, and was fired as a result. At the time, he argued "I'm a hack who gets hired because I do drugs".
Finally, this cultivated image is far more flattering than the reality - Rebellious-but-Bright Will left Oxford with a third. Or maybe I'm just a schizo and he really did fry his brain on skag. Either way, it warrants thorough investigation.
