A psychogeographer’s musings in The Gulf

28th February 2023

Drifts by Natasha Burge, a psychogeographer’s musings in the Gulf.

First. What is psychogeography? It describes the effect of a geographical location on the emotions and behaviour of individuals. The author describes a typical psychogeographer’s meanderings as disparate stalkings of place, a practice known as dérive (drifts – hence the title of the book), where individuals move through urban space with no preordained  plan, recording their impressions.

Understanding the meaning of psychogeography gives the reader perspective on the seemingly random sound-bytes and stream of consciousness that the author has brought together in this short book. She is a Saudi-born American, whose forebears have lived in that country for 3 generations. Nevertheless, she will one day have to leave given her visa status, she knows that, and that colours her sense of belonging, identity and home. Where is she really “from”, she ponders? At age 37 she also gains a diagnosis of autism and her thoughts around the diagnosis and ways of seeing the world are woven into the narrative. She also sees herself as hyperlexic, which perhaps contributes to the intensity of the writing and description, which can feel quite relentless and breathless, overwhelming even.

The geographical element, which moves around the Gulf between Saudi and Bahrain, with occasional sojourns in London and USA, is more an exploration of autism, and the battles and anxiety that colour behaviour and thinking. There are detailed descriptions of place – mainly Saudi and Bahrain, which offer a bit of insight but rely heavily on descriptive capabilities, without rendering a deep sense of place. She understands, too that her psychogeopgraphy has been autistic. It has been an autistic reckoning of space and place, an autistic sense of the street beyond street. The two seemingly go hand in hand and perhaps explain the butterfly nature of the storytelling.

There is an undertow of anger, fury even, that permeates the text, citing how people expect her to write about her home country from then outside looking in, how to behave – as I visualise her stomping around the locations, recording her impressions. I think the intensity, for me, was so ardent that it felt all consuming, yet also fragile and I felt – at some level – quite some trepidation about venturing with her on her literary and personal journey because at times I felt a little engulfed.

It was an interesting and unexpected read and to be honest, quite a challenge.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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