#42 - John Waters at 70 - Race of Angels: Ireland and the Genesis of U2 (1/2)

In this episode John Waters discusses his second book, Race of Angels. This work published in 1994 is about U2 and their fitting into a tapestry of particularly Irish cultural phenomena that John says was essential, and not incidental, to their formation and success. The story of U2 has run alongside some of the most drastic technological and cultural changes that have ever taken place. Race of Angels explores the effects that some of these changes have had on how we interact with each other and with reality, with reference to the work of media theorists and philosophers such as Marshall McLuhan and Umberto Eco. Ireland’s experience of the postcolonial condition is something that John also goes into, drawing substantially on the work of Franz Fanon.With the benefit of thirty more years of hindsight and experience, in this interview John has a fresh opportunity to reflect on what these thinkers were saying.While being a vocal critic of what is called the ‘establishment,’ John notes that the cultural landscape of the ‘resistance movement’ is also quite unsatisfactory, lacking vision and inspiration; these cultural problems must be addressed if solutions to Ireland’s political problems are to be found.