A Point of View

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A Point of View: Abide with Yourself

21/04/2023

Abide with Yourself

BBC Radio 4 - A Point of View, Abide with Yourself

Will Self on the fad of creating ever more 'cultural quarters' in our towns and cities.

Will Self advocates the notion of 'abiding' - sitting and whiling away time - in our society of 'seemingly ceaseless motion'.

The philosopher Michel de Certeau characterised space as ‘the practice of place’,

Will Self argues that, in order to appreciate the places we inhabit, we have to indulge in 'that most unfashionable and unproductive of things: abide". 

'To be in a place', he writes, 'is not to be distracted by the possibility of other places, but absorbed by the particularity of the one you're in.' 

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

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