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More copies of this ISBNPsychogeography: Disentangling the Modern Conundrum of Psyche and Placeby Will Self
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:For those interested in the connection between people and place, the best of the decade long collaboration between literary brat packer Will Self and gonzo illustrator Ralph Steadman. Opening with a dazzling new 20,000-word essay on walking from London to New York, Psychogeography is a collection of 50 short pieces written over the last four years, together with 50 four-color illustrations by Ralph Steadman. In Psychogeography Self and Steadman explore the relationship between psyche and place in the contemporary world. Self thinks most people have a “wind-screen-based virtuality” on long- and short-distance travel. We drive, take buses and trains, fly. To combat this compromised reality, Will Self walks, relating intimately to place, as pedestrians do. Ranging in subject from swimming the Ganges to motorcycling across the Australian outback, shopping in an Iowa mall to surfing a tsunami, Psychogeography is at once a map of our world and the psychoanalysis of the way we inhabit it. The pieces are serious, humorous, facetious, and rambunctious. Psychogeography, the study of the effects of geographical environment on the emotions and behavior of individuals, has captivated other writers including W. G. Sebald and Peter Ackroyd, but Self and Steadman have their own unique spin on how place shapes people and vice versa. Will Self is the acclaimed author of such books as The Quantity Theory of Insanity, Great Apes, How the Dead Live, and The Book of Dave. He won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and was short-listed for the Whitbread. He lives in London. Ralph Steadman is an award-winning cartoonist and illustrator. Renowned as a political and social satirist, he has collaborated with Hunter S. Thompson, illustrated classics such as Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, and Animal Farm, and published his own books, including Doodaaa and the memoir, The Jokes Over. He lives in London. Opening with a new 20,000-word essay on walking from London to New York, Psychogeography is a collection of 50 short pieces written by Will Self over the last four years, together with 50 four-color illustrations by Ralph Steadman. Self and Steadman explore the relationship between psyche and place in the contemporary world. Self thinks most people have a “wind-screen-based virtuality” on long- and short-distance travel. We drive, take buses and trains, fly. To combat this compromised reality, Will Self walks, relating intimately to place, as pedestrians do. Ranging in subject from swimming the Ganges to motorcycling across the Australian outback, shopping in an Iowa mall to surfing a tsunami, Psychogeography is at once a map of our world and the psychoanalysis of the way we inhabit it. The pieces are serious, humorous, facetious, and rambunctious. Psychogeography, the study of the effects of geographical environment on the emotions and behavior of individuals, has captivated other writers including W. G. Sebald and Peter Ackroyd, but Self and Steadman have their own unique spin on how place shapes people and vice versa. "As with Self's novels, the ideas behind his long walks can be more engaging than the walks themselves. This may be because on the page Self is a sprinter, not a distance man; certainly he is at his most perceptive and convincing when writing short and focused little pieces. Which is to say: Self is a natural and excellent columnist."—Matt Weiland, The New York Times "Self reveals a profound truth about place and our contemporary psyche . . . Steadman's illustrations dazzle in their imagination, wit and fancy."—Los Angeles Times "Self walks, and as he walks, he spins the shambling, freely associative web of a drunken spider. But this is the intoxicant-free Self, though his mind and prose are still on fire. Before his pen gets to business, his legs are doing the work, 'parting and marrying, parting and marrying . . . needle-limbs piercing and repiercing the fabric of reality.' He is drinking from the personality of a place, tucking into the effects of geography on the emotions, turning states into states of mind, trip lines to memory, dreams and reflections. The interzones are what he conjures best: neglected and unimagined places like those along the walk from his London home to Heathrow and then from New York's JFK airport into Manhattan. It is a closely observed ramble, from the 'damp tongue of leaf-pressed tarmac snaking through the grass' that leads him to Heathrow, to the old and new provocations of New York's unprepossessing neighborhoods. He shapes a gestalt 'compounded of place, progress and Weltanschauung,' finding umbilical linkages between distant and unique places: Gaudí's La Sagrada Familia strikes him as the Lolita of sacred architecture. Self seems to have been everywhere, each place calling up his days of youth-phantasmagoria and bitter debauch—rendered evermore bizarre by Steadman's spattered, spooky artwork. As he bounces about in memory's halls, Self is also in the moment, on a quest for ambulatory satori. If enlightenment is not always within reach, he flashes with insights regarding the role of London's riot-friendly squares in generating the world's oldest representational government, the lemony light of a perfect autumn morning, the difficulty of finding cheese in the English Midlands . . . An effulgent album of insubordinate, psychogeographical postage stamps: colorful, crowded and transporting."—Kirkus Reviews "This artful and entertaining collection of essays by novelist Self 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."—Publishers Weekly Table of Contents Introduction: Walking to New York South Downs Way On Péages Apples or Pears? High on Merseyside The Holy City The Chilterns Madame Jacquard Zooming Moulay Decoys in Iowa Business as Usual Canary Dwarf The Hot Spirit of the Caribbean Fujian Mind Warp Côte of Desire Be Here Now Spin City Hitler in Rio A Handful of Carbohydrate Thai Strip Modelling the Neapolitan Bend Sinister Sizewell Again Bouncy Metropolis Back to the Renaissance The Sound of the Suburbs Right to Urban Roaming Havana . . . in Brighton Line of Control Teatowel Archipelago Tsunami Rotten Smoke The Stones of Rome Foulness Spain—the Final Frontier In the Garden Tea Time in Turkey Deliverance—Doggy Style Fantastic Mr. Fox Feng Shui in Singapore The Fugitive Black Cloud The Vatican at Sea Canalised Middle Earth Kate Moss or Moss? Where's Papa? Sweaty Hearth Pink, Fluffy Barcelona The Art of Lobster I Am a Cable Car Wild Water Beard in Space Romantic Services Newfoundland Review:"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." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Synopsis:For those interested in the connection between people and place, the best of the decade long collaboration between literary brat packer Will Self and gonzo illustrator Ralph Steadman. Opening with a dazzling new 20,000-word essay on walking from London to New York, Psychogeography is a collection of 50 short pieces written over the last four years, together with 50 four-color illustrations by Ralph Steadman. In Psychogeography Self and Steadman explore the relationship between psyche and place in the contemporary world. Self thinks most people have a wind-screen-based virtuality on long- and short-distance travel. We drive, take buses and trains, fly. To combat this compromised reality, Will Self walks, relating intimately to place, as pedestrians do. Ranging in subject from swimming the Ganges to motorcycling across the Australian outback, shopping in an Iowa mall to surfing a tsunami, Psychogeography is at once a map of our world and the psychoanalysis of the way we inhabit it. The pieces are serious, humorous, facetious, and rambunctious. Psychogeography, the study of the effects of geographical environment on the emotions and behavior of individuals, has captivated other writers including W. G. Sebald and Peter Ackroyd, but Self and Steadman have their own unique spin on how place shapes people and vice versa. Synopsis:For those interested in the connection between people and place, the best of the decade long collaboration between literary brat packer Will Self and gonzo illustrator Ralph Steadman. Opening with a dazzling new 20,000-word essay on walking from London to New York, Psychogeography is a collection of 50 short pieces written over the last four years, together with 50 four-color illustrations by Ralph Steadman. In Psychogeography Self and Steadman explore the relationship between psyche and place in the contemporary world. Self thinks most people have a "wind-screen-based virtuality" on long- and short-distance travel. We drive, take buses and trains, fly. To combat this compromised reality, Will Self walks, relating intimately to place, as pedestrians do. Ranging in subject from swimming the Ganges to motorcycling across the Australian outback, shopping in an Iowa mall to surfing a tsunami, Psychogeography is at once a map of our world and the psychoanalysis of the way we inhabit it. The pieces are serious, humorous, facetious, and rambunctious. Psychogeography, the study of the effects of geographical environment on the emotions and behavior of individuals, has captivated other writers including W. G. Sebald and Peter Ackroyd, but Self and Steadman have their own unique spin on how place shapes people and vice versa. About the AuthorWill Self is the acclaimed author of such books as The Quantity Theory of Insanity, Great Apes, How the Dead Live, and The Book of Dave. He won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and was short listed for the Whitbread. He lives in London. Ralph Steadman is an award-winning cartoonist and illustrator. Renowned as a political and social satirist, he has collaborated with Hunter S. Thompson, illustrated classics such as Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, and Animal Farm, and published his own books, including Doodaaa and the memoir, The Joke's Over. They both live in London. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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