Peripathetic
Notes on (un)belonging
ʻThere was something so captivating about always being on the edge, on that shaky precipice of promise — something new and something cool was just lurking around the corner and we’d arrive at it if we kick around long enough.ʼ
Peripathetic is about shit jobs. About being who you are and who you aren’t online. About knowing a language four times. About living on the interstices. About thievery. About wanting. About the hyperreal. About weirdness.
Cher Tan’s essays are as non-linear as her life, as she travels across borders that are simultaneously tightening and blurring. In luminous and inventive prose, they look beyond the performance of everyday life, seeking answers that continually elude.
Paying homage to the many outsider artists, punks, drop-outs and rogue philosophers who came before, this book is about the resistance of orthodoxies — even when it feels impossible.
‘Tan is searingly intelligent and often very funny, making Peripathetic both a thought-provoking and deeply pleasurable read.’ – Guardian Australia, Best Books of 2024
‘Peripathetic is a fascinating collection, always animated by Tan’s distinctive, acidic voice and rambunctious aesthetic. The essays are bold and always manage to be intellectually engaging and incredibly good fun.’ – Fiona Wright, The Guardian
‘Tan is a sharpshooter, putting into words thoughts that had previously only rattled in my head.’ – ArtsHub
‘Invigoratingly thoughtful, playful and stylistically uncompromising in the best of senses.’ – Sydney Morning Herald/The Age
‘We need curious, energetic and risk-taking commentators like Tan.’ – Books+Publishing
Cher Tan was born in Singapore in 1987 and moved to unceded Kaurna land (so-called ‘Adelaide’) in 2012. She learned how to write through making zines and blogging. Her essays, criticism and other written work have been published widely. She is the reviews editor at Meanjin and an editor at Liminal, and currently lives and works on unceded Wurundjeri land. Peripathetic is her first book.
