In various posts, and
different contexts, I’ve variously referred to Situationism, GuyDebord, Psychogeography, Patrick Keiller and Will Self in this blog. I’ve just caught up with an interesting item
on the BBC Radio Programme ‘Night Waves’
in which Self, (himself), draws together all those strands, in interview,
following his written introduction to a new edition of Debord’s ‘The Society Of The Spectacle’ [1.].
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| Guy Debord |
 |
| Will Self |
As usual, Self uses his vast, splendiferous vocabulary with genuine relish but still manages to supply a
useful, compact introduction/overview of the items under discussion. It’s available on the BBC iPlayer here, [2.], and I’d recommend anyone with any interest in
those subjects to give it a quick listen, (about 35 minutes into the 45 minute broadcast).
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| Patrick Keiller (Photo: Fernando Shehani / Guardian) |
In passing, it’s also a
perfect illustration of why the BBC is still the best broadcaster in the World,
(for all its institutional defects), and one of the few remaining things of any
real value worth living in Britain for. What
other contemporary media outlet would take the trouble to explain exactly why
it is itself part of the very ‘Spectacle’ being critiqued? We’ll all be irreversibly impoverished once
the barbarians dismantle The Beeb, or sell it off, (but that’s a different
rant).
[1.]: Guy Debord (With Introduction By Will Self), ‘The Society Of The Spectacle’, London,
Notting Hill Editions, 2013
[2.]: ‘Night Waves’,
BBC Radio 3. Broadcast: 25 November 2013
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