Editing Will Self (section)

==Literary style==
[[File:Will Self at Humber Mouth 2007.jpg|thumb|right|Self in 2007]]
Self has given his reason for writing as follows: "I don't write fiction for people to identify with and I don't write a picture of the world they can recognise. I write to astonish people."<ref>M. Hunter Hayes ''Understanding Will Self'', p.1</ref> "What excites me is to disturb the reader's fundamental assumptions. I want to make them feel that certain categories within which they are used to perceiving the world are unstable."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Finney|first1=Brian|title=Will Self's Transgressive Fictions|journal=Postmodern Culture|date=May 2001|volume=11|issue=3|doi=10.1353/pmc.2001.0015|s2cid=144272638}}</ref>

When he was ten, he developed an interest in works of science fiction such as [[Frank Herbert]]'s ''[[Dune (novel)|Dune]]'' and those of [[J. G. Ballard]] and [[Philip K. Dick]].<ref name="auto1"/><ref name="auto3"/> Self admires the work of [[J. G. Ballard]], [[Alasdair Gray]] and [[Martin Amis]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=M |first1=Chris |title=Alasdair Gray: An Introduction |url=https://will-self.com/2006/01/12/alisdair-gray-an-introduction-2/ |website=Will Self |date=12 January 2006}}</ref><ref name="auto2">{{cite web |last1=McCrum |first1=Robert |title=Interview: Will Self |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/sep/29/fiction.willself |website=The Observer |date=29 September 2002}}</ref> He has said that he previously admired [[William Burroughs]] but went off him.<ref>{{cite web |author=Guardian Staff |title=Will Self |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/11/willself |website=The Guardian |date=22 July 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Opening up and inside out |url=https://www.economist.com/prospero/2012/09/06/opening-up-and-inside-out |newspaper=The Economist |date=6 September 2012}}</ref> He has cited writers such as [[Jonathan Swift]], [[Franz Kafka]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thespace.lrb.co.uk/|title=Kafka's Wound|access-date=1 September 2019|archive-date=11 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190811123655/https://thespace.lrb.co.uk/|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Lewis Carroll]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Curiouser and curiouser |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/curiouser-and-curiouser-5363792.html |website=The Independent |language=en |date=11 August 2001}}</ref> and [[Joseph Heller]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Self |first1=Will |title=Will Self: 'I read as many as 50 books at once' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/17/will-self-i-read-as-many-as-50-books-at-once |website=The Guardian |date=17 August 2018}}</ref> as formative influences on his writing style.<ref name="auto2"/> Other influences on his fiction include [[Hunter S. Thompson]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Taylor |first1=Kate |title='Truth is weirder than any fiction I've seen ... ' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/21/huntersthompson1 |website=The Guardian |date=21 February 2005}}</ref> Self credits [[Louis-Ferdinand Céline|Céline's]] book ''[[Journey to the End of the Night]]'' with inspiring him to write fiction.<ref name="Self on Celine">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/books/review/Self.t.html|date=10 September 2006|title=Céline's Dark Journey|author=Will Self|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=17 July 2010}}</ref>

[[Zack Busner]] is a recurring character in Self's fiction, appearing in the short story collections ''The Quantity Theory of Insanity'', ''Grey Area'' and ''Dr. Mukti and Other Tales of Woe'', as well as in the novels ''Great Apes'', ''The Book of Dave'', ''Umbrella'' and ''Shark''. Busner is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst practising in London and is prone to self-promotion at the expense of his patients. He is often the [[antagonist]] of the stories he appears in, although not always with villainous intent.

Among Self's admirers was the American critic [[Harold Bloom]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bloom|first=Harold|title=Genius : a mosaic of one hundred exemplary creative minds|url=https://archive.org/details/geniusmosaiconeh00bloo_894|url-access=limited|year=2002|publisher=Warner Books|location=New York|isbn=0-446-69129-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/geniusmosaiconeh00bloo_894/page/n646 648]|quote=There are a few affinities, except perhaps with the admirable Antonia Byatt, in the generation after: novelists I also now admire, like Will Self, Peter Ackroyd, and John Banville.}}</ref> Journalist [[Stuart Maconie]] has described him as "that rarity in modern cultural life, a genuine intellectual with a bracing command of words and ideas who is also droll, likeable and culturally savvy."<ref>Stuart Maconie. "My People". ''[[Radio Times]]'' 2–8 February 2013, p.125</ref>