oh-you-better-run:

but london is a glorious mess: the psychogeography reclist

first of all, because you’re probably asking this question already: what is psychogeogprahy? 

guy debord defined it as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.” i, personally, tend more towards this definition: that the city (or place) is, quite literally, alive. that, as peter ackroyd claims, “i truly believe that there are certain people to whom or through whom the territory, the place, the past speaks.” psychogeography is, at times, more a feeling that anything else— i always find that the easiest way to explain it is to ask people to watch this.

it is, as you might have guessed, one of my primary academic interests, and, as such, i have made a list of ten introductory texts that i think are accessible to everyone, or at least or interesting. they aren’t texts, necessarily, that were written after pyschogeography the “term” was invented, and many of them are texts that you may have read before. the tyranny of place is merely another window; a mirror to hold up to these texts and wait.

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Interesting list illustrating a compelling idea, although I feel duty bound to point out that Stevenson’s London is, in fact, Edinburgh. Not that this negates it’s relevance to this list, exactly, given the nature of the story.

I have a lot of residual emotions about duality in Scottish literature. A lot. Don’t ever ask me about Justified Sinner.

(Source: soyonscruels)