Psychogeography
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- €20.99
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- €20.99
Publisher Description
Provocateurs Will Self and Ralph Steadman join forces in this post-millennial meditation on the vexed relationship between psyche and place in a globalised world, bringing together for the first time the very best of their 'Psychogeography' columns for the Independent.
The introduction, 'Walking to New York', is both a prelude to the verbal and visual essays that make up this extraordinary collaboration, and a revealing exploration of the split in Self's Jewish-American-British psyche and its relationship to the political geography of the post-9/11 world.
Ranging from the Scottish Highlands to Istanbul and from Morocco to Ohio, Will Self's engaging and disturbing vision is perfectly counter-pointed by Ralph Steadman's edgy and beautiful artwork.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This artful and entertaining collection of essays by novelist Self (The Book of Dave) will delight anyone who enjoys his weekly column of the same name in the Independent or his last collection of essays, Feeding Frenzy. Here Self shifts from gonzo journalism to the study of psychogeography, the study of how geographical environments affect emotions and behavior. Setting off on a quest for the "intrinsic character" of various places as well as "the manner in which the contemporary world warps the relationship between psyche and place," Self casts a dismissive eye on most of the world. Singapore strikes him "as Basingstoke force-fed with pituitary gland"; Sao Paolo's lack of a street plan makes it "an unholy miscegenation between London and Los Angeles." But Steadman's beautifully harsh illustrations (worthy of their own book) and "Walking to New York," a previously unpublished semi-autobiographical meditation on life and death, reveal a surprising depth to Self's cynical insights.
