BookOpinion

Author Will Self reads from his book “Psychogeography: Disentangling the Modern Conundrum of Psyche and Place” and discusses the concept behind it in this discussion at Google.

Publishers Weekly describes the book: “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 But Steadman’s beautifully harsh illustrations (worthy of their own book) and Walking to New York, a previously unpublished semi-autobiographical meditation on life and death, reveal a surprising depth to Self’s cynical insights.”

In the hour-long discussion, Self reads from “Psychogeography” and discusses why he wrote it. Self says people need to get out and interact with their world on a more personal level.

“This method is about reappopriating what is beautiful,” he says in the video below. “Why shouldn’t we live in a world that if we can’t consider it as being beautiful the the whole time? We can at least consider that we are actually in it. We can at least give it that respect.”