Junk Mail Book

A very interesting compendium of Will Self's early journalism that is divided into the following sections. 1)- Drugs, 2)- Humor, 3)- Book Reviews, 4)- Features, 5)- Profiles and 6)- Conservations.

Within the drugs section, there are numerous essays examining William Burroughs, including a very entertaining essay (Naked Tea) where Self and an addiction rehabitation center airs the David Cronenberg reimagined version of Naked Lunch. The intent is to discern how accurate the depiction of drug taking was in the film and it became a discussion on what if any depictions can truly be genuine. Other essays have intresting sociological dynamics, for example "New Crack City" takes the reader into the home of a crack dealer and you witness the ways in which clients are dealt with, how drugs are stored, prepared and so on. The fact that drug dealers supposedly have a facial code when standing outside London Kings Cross Station. It all seems elusive and ultimately alien to a straight, boring non druggie like myself.

In "Let us Intoxicate", a discussion that usefully examines anthropology and drug use as a ritual in other cultures makes the following point, which was underlined in my edition, "The point is that drinking or drug-taking is only pathological in so far as it departs from meningful ritual". The discussion of environment and its affects on the psyche during drug taking was also interesting. The same drug in different spaces/places will bring out a different reaction, including alcohol. Self in perhaps, a more philosophically wistful phase of his life goes on to remark, "Alcoholics and drug addicts are merely that statistically definable component of our collectivity who are paying with their lives for our inability to take a more constructive view of intoxication". A view he credits to Thomas Szasz's book, "Ceremonial Chemistry". There is an interesting critical essay on Terence Mckenna and he rightly predicted the ways in which his quotes would be used as t-shirt syllogisms in the future. Although Self is unable to grasp the meaning of or depth that Mckenna conveyed in his work and research. Self's critiques here are quite weak in the end and don't get at the substantive philosophical work in the Mckenna cannon, particularly his anthropological discussion of the stoned ape hypothesis. Occasionally Self will introduce a book to you that sounds like it might be worth reading.

For example in "Reeling and Writhing", the discussion of Sandar Gilman's "Crack Wars" which uses "Heideffer, Freud, Nietzche, Baudelaire, Gutier, Arendt, Burroughs, Benjamin, Derrida and Lacan" to look at how drugs have been viewed through these thinkers. Self's critique is right on the money, he rightfully cites Adorno's Jargon of Authenticity, since the book is infested with obscurantism. Whilst these reviews are fun to read as a throwaway newspaper article in the Observer would be, it ultimately is like reading a scrap book, which has been saved by the author's over-bearing and over emotional mother.

Other essays in this section therefore can be thin, sparing and filler in quality. Others are poor attempts at being contrarian. In "Junking the Image", Self argues that Burroughs has became like an usurped, decontextualized image. Burroughs was reinvented, sort of humanized due to his later life admission that he would never have wrote a word had it not been for his accidental killing of his wife. The humanity forces a sort of emotional reimagining of the work which came before, which is strange considering the depravity, madness and stupidity that ultimately is a large part of the Burroughs Cannon. The fact that his readers ascribe some affinity to the experimental sexual sadism that features in most of Burroughs cut up novels, is as beguiling as is his popularity as a junksman. Burroughs entire literary persona was his ability at amassing this cult counter culture fandom through his life and his wacky obsessions. Stories that recount the Burroughs lifestyle are often more interesting than his own work was. His 23 enigma discovery, his obsession with general semantic theory, his occult interests that persisted with his conservative image and ultimately politics. Junking the image therefore would be a dismissal of the entire Burroughs canon. His work is a lot of show sometimes without the substance. His nova express triology is a complete mess, but is heralded as an example of experimental writing, using a technique that supposedly innovates, randomizes, shows the insanity of the universe or whatever the fuck he was trying to do.

Self is at his best in this scrap book when he looks at English culture, or when he examines bizarre subjects with a genuinely curious analytical gaze. An example is his discussion of Cryonics, which is fascinating. The demographics of those who freeze, the debates within cryogenics about the nature of the freezing itself, the lack of medical expertise in the preservers. The storing methodology, the location of the tanks, the fear of death that means they eliminate death. Death is removed by jargon, it is now the deanimated phase, a phase that is like buffering waiting for your next reincarnation of yourself to load into the future. Another essay is Self discussing circumcision and his Jewish identity. It is interesting because Self views himself as a "weird jew" because he wasn't circumcised. The essay sees him going

Other stand out pieces include his long profile of Ellis, which is ultimately a sardonic defense of the man. A man who like Martin Amis, was vilified by the media and depicted in nefarious ways. A more interesting text of course would simply be the transcript of the meal they had together. The Martin Amis discussion is also good in that it is intimate enough to create connection, but detailed enough for you not to rest on cheap emotional glue. These profiles do their job, they make you appreciate the author being examined that bit more. This is fleshed out better in his conversation with Amis at the end of the book.

Buy second hand and read selections. It is worth the read and there is charm, intellect and interest in the pieces, which is felt particularly in pieces which are not time specific. His life on Orkney, the drawings, the jargon etc. You get a lot of substance here, that won't be offered in other journalism collections.