Introduction
This guide for a walk through the General Strike in Swindon will be half-way between a conventional guide for a walk (turn left then right for the bus station sort of thing) and a guide for a psychogeographical ramble.
‘What do you mean by that?’ I hear you say.
‘Don’t panic,’ I reply.
All I mean by a psychogeographical ramble is no more than losing yourself in the past as you traverse through space: ‘Slipping through Wormholes of Time.’ I hope this guide helps you do that.
Remember William Faulkner’s dictum:
‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’
But is that so?
Let’s find out.
Start your walk at the railway station and turn right. Then take a right under the railway line along the old North Wilts Canal. Walk as far as the Oasis. Study this link: https://radicalstroud.co.uk/a-jolly-dystopian-ramble-to-the-oasis/
(This link gives you a flavour of psychogeographical walking).
Then, carry on walking away from town on that previous straight line until you leave the pathway and then take a left to reach the main road and then a left for Rodbourne Road. Then find Morris Street on your right. Walk to the end of the street until you reach the greensward. Then study this link
https://radicalstroud.co.uk/proust-t-s-eliot-and-a-municipal-rubbish-tip-in-swindon/
(This link gives you another flavour of psychogeographical walking).
Now retrace your steps to the end of Morris Street and then turn right towards town. Then turn left for the railway village and find a seat in the park. Study this for Swindon and the General Strike at your leisure: https://radicalstroud.co.uk/swindon-and-the-general-strike/
It’s worthwhile taking some refreshment in the Gluepot and having a read of this: https://radicalstroud.co.uk/the-gluepot-in-the-railway-village-in-swindon/
You may also wish to visit the STEAM Museum and after that, if you have time, or on another occasion, you might like to walk to Old Town. Take a walk along the old canal and then the old railway line to Old Town.
https://radicalstroud.co.uk/canals-and-family-history/
Well, there we are. Some psychogeographical rambles around Swindon, the General Strike, railways and canals. And here is the promised writing guide if you fancy writing yourself:
A GUIDE TO WRITING YOUR OWN
If you fancy it, here’s a practical easy guide to creative writing.
(If any readers are into the intellectual side
of all this slipping through wormholes of time stuff,
and fancy some prompts about psychogeography,
Radical walking and the imagination –
an A to Z of Psychogeography
follows the creative writing guide.)
A guide to creative writing: An A – Z Writing Guide
A is for ALLITERATION and ANECDOTES
and ASSONANCE and ATMOSPHERE
B is for BATHOS and BLANK VERSE and BACKSTORY
C is for CHARACTERS and CLIFFHANGER and COUNTER-HERITAGE
D is for DIALOGUE and DRAMA
E is for EFFECT and ELLIPSIS
F is for FIRST PERSON and FORESHADOWING
and FACT and FICTION and FREE VERSE
G is for GENRE (which will you choose?)
and GUERRILLA MEMORIALISATION
H is for HONESTY and HEART (and soul) and HERITAGE
I is for IMAGERY and IDIOM and IAMBIC PENTAMETRE
and IMAGINATION
J is for JUSTICE and the JUST word
K is for KINDNESS and KINESIS
L is for LUCID and LUDIC and LIMINALITY
M is for METAPHOR and MOOD and MEMORIALISATION
and MYTHOPOEIC and METRE
N is for NARRATIVE and NOTEBOOK (necessary)
O is for ONOMATAPOEIA
P is for PERSONA and PLOT and PACE and PUNCTUATION
and PARENTHESIS and PEN and PENCIL
and PAPER and POETRY and PROSE
Q is for QUEST (for the right word) and QUESTIONS
R is for RULE OF THREE and RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
and RESEARCH and READING and RHYME and RHYTHM
S is for SIMILE and SIBILANCE and STRUCTURE
and STANZA and SETTING and SENSES and SENTENCES (varied)
and SYNTHESIA
T is for TRIPLES and THIRD PERSON
U is for UNDERSTATED
V is for VARIED SENTENCE STRUCTURE and VOICE
and VERSE and VARIED VOCABULARY
W is for WANDERING and WRITING and WORMHOLES
X is for X-ROADS (liminal wormholes through time)
Y is for YEARNING (for the past and for the right word)
Z is for ZEN and the ART of STATIONERY MAINTENANCE
An A-Z Psychogeographical Guide
A is for Ambulatory Art; the Arcades Project; Alienation; Ambience/Ambiance; Aleatory Walking; Ackroyd (Peter); the Association of Autonomous Astronauts; Autism and Walking; Ambling.
B is for Beach (Beneath the Pavements!!); Benjamin (Walter); Baudelaire; Bohemian; Barthes (Roland); Baudrillard Jean) and Bucolic.
C is for Commodity Fetishism; Crowds; Chtcheglov (Ivan); Coverley (Miles); Cartography (Re-imagined); Critique of Everyday Life; Commodification; Cultural Terrorism; Choreographed Walking; Cadogan (Garnette); Cyberflanerie; Crowds; constitutional.
D is for Derivee; Detournement; Debord (Guy); Defoe (Daniel); de Certeau (Michel); Disabled Walking; Dementia and Walking; Dreamtime Walking.
E is for Edgelands; Existentialism; Experimental Exeats; Egressions; Ecophilia.
F is for Flaneur; Flanerie; Flaneuse; Five Valleys; Fete (see Potlatch); Foucault (Michel) and Feminist Psychogeography; Field Walking.
G is for Geography.
H is for Hessel (Franz); Huizinga (Johan), Homo Ludens; Harvey (David); Hawksmoor (Nicholas); Home (Stewart); hollow-ways; hike.
I is for International Situationniste (the S.I. journal); Infraordinary; Interpellation; Indolence.
J is for Journals; Journeys; Jorn (Asger); jogging.
K is for Kaleidoscope; Kafkaesque.
L is for Ludic; Lefebevre (Henri); Lettrist International; Literary Communism; Ley Lines; the Loiterers’ Resistance Movement; Languid.
M is for Marxist-Materialists; Mythogeographers (discovering political and/or multiple meanings in landscapes; Maps (mmm …); Manifestos; May ’68; the Materialist Psychogeographical Affiliation; the Museum of Walking; Multicultural Inclusive Psychogeography; Memory Retrieval through walking (dementia sufferers); POPS (Privately Owned Public Spaces).
N is for Noctivigant; Noctambulist; the Neoist Alliance; Navigation; Navigators (inland); Navvies.
O is for Occultist Walking (invoking de Quincey, and William Blake for a harder political edge.); Oldfield Ford (Laura); Ocularcentrism.
P is for Psychogeography; Potlatch (the S.I. journal) and Potlatch (devoid ‘of all Productive logic in which everyone may Participate’ – A Fete*); Performance (Poetic and subversive Potential of ordinary life revealed); Pranks and Property Defacement; Praxis; Papadimitriou (Nick); Postmodern Flaneur; Psychogeography and the Deriviste;
Q is for de Quincey (Thomas); Queues (bus stop).
R is for Rural (reading and writing the rural – individually/collectively); Romantic (literary tradition); Rhythmanalysis; Reverie; Richardson (Tina); Rimbaud; Relational (cf solitary) Walking and Recollection.
S is for Signifier; Signified; Semiotics; Situations; Spectacles; Situationist International; Society Of The Spectacle; Stroud; Site Specific (art/performance); Solnit (Rebecca); Subversion; Spatial Interruption (cf Temporal Interruption); Sinclair (Ian); Savage Messiah; Social Critique ; Schizocartography; Smith (Phil); the Situational Derive; Situational Walking Arts; Sensory Mapping; Soundscape and Smell Walks.
T is for Time; Temporality Interruption (cf. Spatial Interruption);
Three-Sided Football.
U is for Urban (reading and writing the city/town – individually/collectively); Unitary Urbanism; Utopianism.
V is for van Ratingen (Witold Jerzy) (see * Potlatch above); Virtual Psychogeography.