Monday, August 30th, 2010
Will Self, long-winded author and self-publicist, has had a go at Broadstairs Folk Week. Writing in the New Statesman, Mr Self describes how the folk tradition is actually not that traditional, having been created in the early part of the 20th Century.
Somehow, for Mr Self, this renders Broadstairs Folk Week somewhat inauthentic. We think he’s missed the point – Broadstairs Folk Week is a massive opportunity to get pissed for a week and watch men banging drums, a tradition that stretches back thousands of years.
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One wonders why Mr Self continues to visit Broadstairs as he is always having a pop
Mr Self has his irony, we have folk week. I’m happy.
I wouldn’t get too hot and bothered about this, he does say that it’s a jolly spectacle and no one takes themselves too seriously: a fair summary of Folk Week, I’d say. And all the stuff about morris and the like being mostly made up is true.
Surely the point is that Will Self takes himself too seriously and at one time it was even said that he was made up – that he was in fact really Martin Amis.
Which makes him a metafictional version of a morris man. Perhaps.
I think he has a very serious demeanour, but I don’t think he takes himself too seriously. After all, he was a team captain on “Shooting Stars” for a while!
And rubbish at it.