Tuesday 12 July 2011

Wystan by Will Self

If this opening paragraph floats your boat, you can read the whole of Will Self's short story, Wystan, at the Times website (without the need to get past their paywall).


Chloe dreamt that she was having sex with her father-in-law’s dog, Wystan, a particularly skinny and nervous whippet. The whippet’s claws scratched her shoulders and breasts terribly — his needle-sharp teeth nipped at her ears; what was going on down below Chloe could only intuit, not feel, but the idea alone sent alternating pulses of nausea and shame coursing through her subconscious.

Continue here.

4 comments:

  1. I think my boat is unfloated. Possibly still in dry dock. Stewart Home used to produce badges that read 'Will Self is stupid'. That always tickled me. He isn't as good as he thinks he is; is he? I'm prepared to be argued with, but isn't he a 'clever person' as dreamed by an idiot?

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  2. Ah, maybe. Perhaps that's part of the charm. Personally I like his fiction, although I agree he's a bit of a dick.

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  3. He's a prime pontificator, and a pleonast to boot. I think.

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  4. ...or a walking pleonasm, now I think of it. But maybe that's how Will Self would describe himself. Irony. It's a killer.

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