Surrealism
Alexander
explain. Thank you.
Peace. :-)
Yours truly,
Alexander
Brandon Freels
> What is surrealism? Is it realism or is it something else?
Surrealism FAQ
Version 1.1 (February 2001)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
Introduction
What is Surrealism?
1.1 Pure Psychic Automatism
1.2 A Short Introduction to the Surrealist Movement
The Surrealist Revolution
2.1 Politics
2.2 Art and Literature
Surrealist Explorations: Play and Creativity
3.1 Automatism
3.2 Forced Inspiration
3.3 The Surrealist Collage
3.4 The Surrealist Object
3.5 Games
Some Surrealist Concepts
4.1 Black Humor
4.2 The Marvelous
4.3 Mad Love
4.4 Miserablism
The Periphery: Precursors, Fellow Travelers, et al.
5.1 George Bataille
5.2 Dada
5.3 Salvador Dali (Avida Dollars)
5.4 The Occult
5.5 Oulipo
5.6 Pataphysics
5.7 Psychoanalysis
5.8 Situationist International
Appendix
6.1 Further Reading in English
6.2 Online Documents
6.3 Online Surrealist Groups
6.4 Online Surrealist Resources
6.5 FAQ Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION
Thanks to the common misrepresentations spread throughout the Internet and
academia by individuals hoping to reorient its focus Surrealism is often
misunderstood as an artistic style, a literary movement, a form of mystical
escapism into a world of illusions, convenient weirdness, and a variety of
other banalities. This Frequently Asked Questions was produced to combat the
onslaught of such disinformation. It will be regularly posted to
alt.surrealism, an open forum for discussion and a dumping ground for
anything that falls within the scope of Surrealist interest.
"Perhaps the greatest danger threatening Surrealism today is the fact that
because of its spread throughout the world, which was very sudden and rapid,
the word found favor much faster than the idea." ---André Breton, Surrealist
Situation of the Object
"Surrealism has declared, in every authentic manifestation, its commitment
to revolution; the displacement of the real import of the word by
inhibitions in the writings of college teachers does not alter that
commitment in the slightest. It merely means that there is promulgated the
illusion that critics have something to add." ---The Chicago Surrealist
Group, reply to The New York Review of Books
WHAT IS SURREALISM?
1.1 Pure Psychic Automatism
Pure Psychic Automatism is the primary and natural condition of the mind and
all its faculties free from the interference of external constraints such as
rationalism, aestheticism, utilitarianism, and religious superstition. This
autonomy is achieved only when the socially constructed apparatuses of
repression are dismantled and those ostracized characteristics of the mind
(innovative imagination, uncompromised desire, and so on) are reintegrated
into everyday life, delivering the mind to a state of free development and
spontaneity. It is in this state, where the individual has regained the
primeval senses, that the mind can move forward to an untainted awareness of
existence, which is the most complete experience of reality---a surreality.
Pure Psychic Automatism is synonymous with Surrealism.
"SURREALISM, n. Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes
to express---verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other
manner---the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the
absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or
moral concern." ---André Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism
"Surrealism is not a new means of expression, or an easier one, nor even a
metaphysics of poetry. It is a means of total liberation of the mind and of
all that resembles it ... Surrealism is not a poetic form. It is a cry of
the mind turning back on itself, and it is determined to break apart its
fetters, even if it must be by material hammers!" ---Declaration of January
27, 1925
"Surrealism, a unitary project of total revolution, is above all a method of
knowledge and a way of life; it is lived far more than it is written, or
written about, or drawn. Surrealism is the most exhilarating adventure of
the mind, an unparalleled means of pursuing the fervent quest for freedom
and true life beyond the veil of ideological appearances." ---Franklin
Rosemont, Andre Breton and the First Principles of Surrealism
1.2 A Short Introduction to the Surrealist Movement
The Surrealist Movement was founded in Paris in 1924 for the sole purpose of
changing reality through the dissolving of orthodoxy, the liberation of the
mind, and the reintegration of the inner necessities with the exterior life.
Opening the Bureau of Surrealist Research and eventually publishing two
journals (The Surrealist Revolution and Surrealism in the Service of the
Revolution) the original group’s initial focus was on uncovering and
exploring the techniques that capture the real functioning of thought. In
their program these investigations (from sleeping trances to automatic
writing) were adjoined to scalding critiques of both the repressive art and
literature of the time and the culture of rationalism in general.
Through the 1930s the movement continued to grow in infamy and influence
with groups appearing in the United Kingdom, Japan, Yugoslavia,
Czechoslovakia, Romania, Belgium, Portugal, Egypt, and a variety of other
countries. This fecund period ended with the Second World War, when the
Paris surrealists were dispersed or detained. Following the war the movement
found itself fragmented. André Breton could only partially reconstitute the
Paris group, as its former members were no longer on a common course.
Opposition to Breton’s increasing interest in esotericism led to splinter
groups and competitors, such as Isadore Isou’s Lettrist Movement and CoBrA.
In 1966, with the approval of Breton, the first indigenous surrealist group
in the United States was formed in Chicago by Paul Garon and Franklin and
Penelope Rosemont, which has remained the most visible group writing in
English, printing a variety of publications such as their journal Arsenal:
Surrealist Subversion. In September of 1966 Breton died and in March of 1969
the Paris group officially disbanded. However, the majority of the group
reemerged in 1970 with the Bulletin de Liaison Surrealiste.
Today the movement is a decentralized and international constellation of
groups and individuals committed to Surrealism’s resilient principles. It
remains a work in progress, and along with the older collectives (in Paris,
Chicago, and Prague), smaller groups of surrealists continue to form around
the globe to work in the margins. Among recent groups are those in
Stockholm, Leeds, Madrid, Argentina, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Whether these
groups will only change the individuals involved or if they can have a
broader impact is a question of little importance. Rather, they are certain
that the drive for liberty is unstoppable, and that a revolution that
redresses the human condition will necessarily be surrealist.
THE SURREALIST REVOLUTION
The two principle expressions of the movement’s thrust for complete freedom
are its political nature and its creative output: the first of which
criticizes culture for repressing the internal necessities, and the second
of which seeks to release them.
2.1 Politics
The movement's political stance, which developed out of Dada’s spirit of
revolt and vague anarchism, hardened in 1925 as a response to the resurgence
in French patriotism and militarism when France sent an army to put down an
independence movement in Morocco. Resolving that a revolution in
consciousness cannot transpire independent of a revolution in man's material
condition the Paris surrealists began an association with the Communist
Party. During their brief alliance with associates of the hard line Clarté
periodical, who were uniquely sympathetic to surrealist stands and who
shared a common goal in working to subvert bourgeois culture, efforts by the
surrealists to demonstrate their Party loyalty were repaid with belittlement
and interrogations. To the Communist Party their synthesis of Marx and Freud
was an obstacle to total commitment to the Party.
In addition, there was a conflict over the direction of revolutionary art.
The Communist International had developed the concept of "proletarian
literature," which reduced art to the role of propaganda, and later the
Soviet Writers Congress officially adopted the doctrine of "socialist
realism," which the surrealists denounced as an attempt to enclose art's
revolutionary message in the conservative forms of 19th century bourgeois
aesthetics, entirely antithetical to creativity. The surrealists argued that
art's revolutionary value cannot be reduced to its obvious manifest message.
The artist requires absolute freedom to create new means of expression and
deal with such fundamental matters as psychology and sexual freedom,
concerns the Communist Party considered decadent. Through the 1930s the
surrealists grew more distant from the French Left and from Moscow, and in
1935 they broke away from the Communist Party altogether.
By the late 1930s, fascism had risen in Germany, Italy and Spain with the
complicity of the western democracies, themselves having become increasingly
oppressive. The surrealists continued to issue statements denouncing French
policy on the Spanish Civil War, the Moscow trials of the Stalinist purge,
and the Munich talks. In 1938, Breton and Leon Trotsky proposed the creation
of F.I.A.R.I. (Fédération internationale de l'art révolutionnaire
indépendant), an international association of Marxists and anarchists to
pursue a revolutionary art opposed to the decree of fascist dictatorship,
bourgeois democracy, capitalism (art for art's sake), and Stalinism (social
realism). Though hopelessness was setting in among anti-war activists,
F.I.A.R.I. groups were organized in France, Mexico, Argentina, England and
the U.S. The Paris group started a review, Clé, which lasted but two issues,
just long enough to record the deteriorating political climate.
Since the 1940s surrealism has remained non-aligned, often affiliating with
and supporting a variety of revolutionary movements that oppose the existing
conditions of the social, political, and cultural order, and issuing
opinions on contemporary political matters (such as advocating for world
disarmament, denouncing French colonialism in Indochina and Algeria,
protesting the Soviet intervention in Hungary, applauding the outset of the
Cuban Revolution before it was aligned with Russia, and, more recently,
siding with those responsible for the Los Angeles Rebellion of 1992). In its
modern development the political position of Surrealism can be summed up by
the finale of the Chicago Group's Declaration of War (1971):
"Let us speak plainly. Until the last convict is out of prison and the last
'madman' out of the asylum; until the last army has been disbanded and the
last government overthrown; until the last church has been burned and the
last bank pulverized; until the last capitalist and the last cop have been
hanged to death with the guts of the last politician and the last priest;
that is, until men and women are truly free, surrealism will continue
relentlessly to provide miraculous weapons with which to struggle for this
freedom."
2.2 Art and Literature
For the surrealist the use of art and literature is unconditionally directed
at the unleashing and exploring of the imagination, free from such retarding
devices as premeditation and aesthetics, so that the work can be ruled by
desire alone and cover, as Breton stated in Surrealism and Painting, "the
whole psychophysical field (in which consciousness constitutes only a very
small segment)." The surrealist use of art and literature stands opposed to
the notion of talent and the domination of so-called specialists. Following
in the footsteps of Lautréamont’s famous maxim that “poetry must be made by
all,” surrealists appreciate art and literature for their ability to
manifest the individual’s internal and emotional order, and believe that
everyone has the capacity and necessity to create.
"... surrealist painters, who are poets, always think of something else. The
unprecedented is familiar to them, premeditation unknown. They are aware
that the relationships between things fade as soon as they are established,
to give place to other relationships just as fugitive. They know that no
description is adequate, that nothing can be reproduced literally. They are
all animated by the same striving to liberate the vision, to unite
imagination and nature, to consider all possibilities a reality, to prove to
us that no dualism exists between the imagination and reality, that
everything the human spirit can conceive and create springs from the same
vein, is made of the same matter as his flesh and blood, and the world
around him." ---Paul Éluard, Poetic Evidence
"The art of painting, as I conceive of it, consists in representing through
pictorial technique the unforeseen images that might appear to me at certain
moments, whether my eyes are open or shut." ---Rene Magritte, from a letter
to Mr. and Mrs. Barnet Hodes
"Centuries from now, any art that takes new paths toward a greater
emancipation of the mind will be Surrealist." ---Andre Breton, from an
interview with Jose M. Valverde
SURREALIST EXPLORATIONS
3.1 Automatism
Automatism is a behavior of the body whereby subverting the restraint of
consciousness an individual is compelled to perform involuntary motor or
verbal activities. It can be achieved through a variety of techniques, the
best known being the practice of automatic writing which Freud advocated as
a way of getting around self-censorship. This technique originated with the
Spiritualists who were the source of the trance sessions and other devices
employed by the surrealists. The surrealist use of these devices, it is
worth remembering, is not one of Freudian therapy or absurdities like
communicating with the dead, but for liberating the imagination. The results
of automatism can be found in the paintings of Joan Miro and André Masson,
in André Breton and Philippe Soupault's The Magnetic Fields, and in the
sleeping trances of Robert Desnos. It is a common misconception that
surrealists object to any revision of a text that has been written
automatically. In fact, after the initial experiment of The Magnetic Fields
automatic texts have been habitually edited.
"The whole point, for Surrealism, was to convince ourselves that we had got
our hands on the ‘prime matter’ (in the alchemical sense) of language. After
that, we knew where to get it, and it goes without saying that we had no
interest in reproducing it to the point of satiety; this is said for the
benefit of those who are surprised that among us the practice of automatic
writing was abandoned so quickly." ---André Breton, On Surrealism and Its
Living Works
"I resolved to obtain from myself ... a monologue spoken as rapidly as
possible without any intervention on the part of the critical faculties, a
monologue unencumbered by the slightest inhibition and which was, as closely
as possible, akin to spoken thought." ---André Breton, Manifesto of
Surrealism
3.2 Forced Inspiration
Forced Inspiration is the liberation of imaginative associations through the
suggestive quality of a particular perception that gives way to the
dictation of the internal and emotional order, revealing the veiled-erotic.
This method of creative interpretation, which has been utilized in the
teachings of Leonardo da Vinci, in the everyday activity of cloud watching,
and in psychoanalysis through the Rorschach Ink-Blot Test, was first used
within the realm of Surrealism by Max Ernst who theorized in his Beyond
Painting a technique called Frottage, whereby crayon or graphite is rubbed
on paper which as been placed over an object or texture with the hopes of
revealing or inspiring an image. Since then a number of similar techniques
all focused on revealing or inspiring previously unforeseen images out of
ambiguity have developed, such as: Decalcomania (pressing paper on a
non-absorbent surface of which gouache, ink, or oil paints have been spread,
originated by Oscar Dominquez), Fumage (passing paper over a smoking candle,
originated by Wolfgang Paalen), and Grottage (scrapping paint from the
surface of a painting, originated by Ernst). Salvador Dali's
Paranoiac-Critical Method is also an example of Forced Inspiration, but its
imaginative associations do not come from an ambiguous source, instead they
come from a more defined perception, creating a double image or even a chain
of images. Forced Inspiration is synonymous with Interpretive Delirium.
3.3 The Surrealist Collage
The Surrealist Collage is a method of gluing together the displaced bits and
pieces of originally unrelated images onto a flat surface to create a new
unforeseen image, most notably seen in the works of Max Ernst. This
principle of displacement can also be used with language and other forms of
creativity, such as with Lautréamont’s famous line from Maldoror: “As
beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a
dissecting table.”
“The value of the image depends upon the beauty of the spark obtained ...
the two terms of the image are not deduced from the other by the mind for
the specific purpose of producing the spark, [but rather] they are the
simultaneous products of the activity I call Surrealist, reason’s role being
limited to taking note of, and appreciating, the luminous
phenomenon.” ---André Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism
3.4 The Surrealist Object
The Surrealist Object is an object, real or imaginary, that has been removed
from its original utilitarian role within the confinement of everyday life
by the dictation of the internal and emotional order. The earliest known
collector of these objects was the German writer Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
who, in 1798, completed a list of imaginary instruments, the most popular
being "a bladeless knife with the handle missing." Since the first group
exhibition of Surrealist Objects in 1936 numerous types of objects have been
invented or theorized, such as: the Found Object, the Natural Object (such
as stones or shells), and the Perturbed Object (deformations), all of which
rely on how the object interacts with the finder’s interior necessities.
Other objects include the Interpretive Object (an object physically or
interpretively transformed by the finder) and the Poem-Object (a poem in
which several of the words are replaced with physical objects).
3.5 Games
The surrealist use of games, like that of art and literature, is primarily
focused on the subversion of premeditation and rational constraints, but in
addition it is also a subversion of the artist's ego with the potential for
revealing the Marvelous heavily relying on the release of collective
creativity. The most famous of these games is the Exquisite Corpse, a game
of paper folding whereby each player creates an incomplete image or phrase
that is unseen by the other players who will then complete the image or
phrase. Specific rules are required for the linguistic version of the game:
player one writes a definite or indefinite article and an adjective, player
two writes a noun, player three writes a verb, player four writes another
definite or indefinite article and an adjective, and player five writes
another noun. The first sentence obtained from this method was "The
exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine." Another game is the game of
Question and Answer (also known as the Game of Definitions), whereby a
question or word is provided by one player, and an answer or definition is
provided by another player who has no knowledge of the question or word
provided by the first player. The question and answer (or word and
definition) are put together to reveal the results, such as:
What is the desert? A dove alighting on a flame.
What is evolution? A calligraphic box of anatomical forms.
SOME SURREALIST CONCEPTS
4.1 Black Humor
Black Humor is a type of humor, often ironic and macabre, where the drive
for pleasure surmounts the trauma of the exterior world. An example taken
from Freud would be that of a man sentenced to be executed on a Monday who
exclaims, "What a wonderful way to start the week!" Exemplary in the works
of Jacques Vaché, Jonathan Swift, and the Marquis de Sade.
4.2 The Marvelous
In its central characterization the Marvelous is a revolt against and an
overturning of common sensibility that is guided by desire and governed by
pleasure. In Mad Love Breton recognized three distinct manifestations of the
Marvelous: fixed-explosive (the juxtaposition or unification of two distant
features), magic-circumstantial (a coincidence manipulated by desire;
synonymous with Objective Chance), and veiled-erotic (the alternating
between two or more coherent perceptions). All of these manifestations rely
heavily on the freeing of the individuals own subjectivity and imagination,
and a reorientation to the inner necessities. The Marvelous is synonymous
with Convulsive Beauty.
4.3 Mad Love
Mad Love is an overwhelming and excessive pursuit of love driven by an
irrational momentum that is often compulsive and spontaneous, and has little
to do with choice and more to do with internal necessity.
"Only love in the sense that I understand it---mysterious, improbable,
unique, bewildering, and certain love that can only be foolproof, might have
permitted the fulfillment of a miracle." ---André Breton, Nadja
"The act of love, just as with a painting or a poem, is discredited if he
who surrenders to it does not do so in a trance." ---André Breton, Apertures
4.4 Miserablism
Miserablism is an inurement to misery, occurring when the deficiencies of
existence are accepted as normal or unavoidable. Defined by Breton as "the
depreciation of reality in place of its exaltation" and further elaborated
by the Chicago Surrealist Group as "the rationalization of the unlivable,"
Miserablism is one of the main enemies of Surrealism, cultivated by economic
rationalism and religion.
THE PERIPHERY: Precursors, Fellow Travelers, et al.
This is not an exhaustive list of the periphery, but rather a short list of
groups and individuals from the periphery who have, at times, been relative
to the discussions at alt.surrealism. Further suggestions and participation
within this section is encouraged.
5.1 Georges Bataille
Under construction
5.2 Dada
Under construction
5.3 Salvador Dali (Avida Dollars)
Under construction
5.4 The Occult
Under construction
5.5 Oulipo
Under construction
5.6 Pataphysics
Under construction
5.7 Psychoanalysis
Under construction
5.8 Situationist International
In 1956 two para-surrealist groups, the International Movement for an
Imaginist Bauhaus and the Lettrist International, met at the First World
Congress of Liberated Artists and soon after unified (along with the
fictional London Psychogeographical Association) to form the Situationist
International.
Instead of passively accepting what the commodity system has made of living
(a boring mess of alienation and separation) the Situationist International
chose as their basic premise the construction of a new way of life. Their
social critique of capitalism, as theorized in Guy Debord’s Society of the
Spectacle, began with their identification of the spectacle, a web of images
and representations (such as advertisements, television, sports events,
newscasts) that develops from the perspective of those in power. The
spectacle is collectively viewed and constantly renewed, turning the
individual into a passive receptor by replacing leisure (what do I want to
do today?) with entertainment (what do I want to see today?). The individual
is no longer active, but exists in a petrified state of buying and selling
experiences.
For the Situationist International the spectacle could be subverted and a
new way of life could be discovered by the individual's management and
construction of situations, those temporary settings of life that are
characterized by a superior emotional quality. The construction of
situations would be based on the theory of Unitary Urbanism, defined as the
use of an ensemble of arts and techniques that would contribute to an
integral composition of the urban space or environment, recovering that
space from the manipulation of the spectacle. Unitary Urbanism would rely on
the method of detournment, whereby a preexisting artistic element is reused
in a new ensemble, and the field study of Psychogeography, defined as the
gathering of information on how the environment influences the psychology of
the individuals. This information can be discovered through the method of
the dérive, a transient passage through a variety of ambiances, and once the
proper information is obtained it would be applied to the construction of
situations.
The Situationist International remained somewhat obscure until 1966 when
they published Mustapha Khayati's On the Poverty of Student Life at the
request of and funded by the student union of the University of Strasbourg.
The pamphlet, which lambasted universities for institutionalizing ignorance
and ridiculed modern culture and its officials, was denounced as a
misappropriation of public funds. The result was a public scandal and the
closure of the student union. Khayati's highly distributed pamphlet
eventually found its way to the University of Paris at Nanterre in early
1968, and inspired a group known as the Enragés to graffiti the walls of the
campus with Situationist slogans and to sabotage lectures. A general protest
followed in May where students engaged in political discourse and even
questioned the idea of the university itself, which eventually lead to the
closure of the college on May 2nd. Action committees set up by the
Situationist International and the Enragés were struck to spread the protest
to schools and factories throughout France, and by May 21st Paris was
paralyzed by a general strike. For this brief period France appeared to be
on the brink of revolution, but de Gaulle regained power with the assistance
of the military and dissolved the situation.
Despite the growth of interest in their ideas following this period the
Situationist International disbanded in 1972.
APPENDIX
6.1 Further Reading in English
Surrealist Authors: Louis Aragon ("Paris Peasant," "Treatise on Style");
André Breton ("What is Surrealism? Selected Writings [ed. Franklin
Rosemont]," "Manifestoes of Surrealism," "Surrealism and Painting," "Nadja,"
"The Communicating Vessels," "Mad Love," "Arcanum 17," "The Lost Steps,"
"Break of Day," "Free Rein," "Anthology of Black Humor," “Conversations: The
Autobiography of Surrealism,” "The Magnetic Fields [with Philippe
Soupault]," "The Immaculate Conception [with Paul Eluard]"); Leonora
Carrington ("Down Below," "The Hearing Trumpet"); Robert Desnos ("Liberty or
Love," "Mourning for Mourning,” “Selected Poems"); Max Ernst (“The Hundred
Headless Woman,” “A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil”); Michel Leiris
("Aurora," "Brisees: Broken Branches"); Pierre Mabille ("Mirror of the
Marvelous"); Benjamin Péret ("Death to the Pigs," "A Marvelous World").
Anthologies: “The Poetry of Surrealism” (ed. Michael Benedikt), "A Book of
Surrealist Games" (ed. Mel Gooding), "The Shadow and Its Shadow: Surrealist
Writing on the Cinema" (ed. Paul Hammond), "The Autobiography of Surrealism"
(ed. Marcel Jean), "The Custom-House of Desire" (ed. JH Matthews),
"Investigating Sex: Surrealist Discussions 1928-32" (ed. Jose Pierre),
“Surrealism” (ed. Herbert Read), "Refusal of the Shadow: Surrealism and the
Caribbean" (ed. Michael Richardson), “Arsenal: Surrealist Subversion 4” (ed.
Franklin Rosemont), “The Forecast is Hot!” (ed. Franklin Rosemont),
“Surrealism and Its Popular Accomplices” (ed. Franklin Rosemont),
"Surrealist Women" (ed. Penelope Rosemont).
While the best critical overviews of and introductions to Surrealism are
Franklin Rosemont's introduction to "What is Surrealism? Selected Writings
of André Breton," Penelope Rosemont's "Surrealist Women," and the many books
of JH Matthews, the following books merit attention as they were used as
sources for this FAQ: Sarane Alexanderian, “Surrealist Art”; Jacqueline
Chénieux-Gendron, "Surrealism"; David Gascoyne, "A Short Survey of
Surrealism"; Helena Lewis, "The Politics of Surrealism"; Maurice Nadeau,
"The History of Surrealism"; Rene Passeron, "The Concise Encyclopedia of
Surrealism"; Jose Pierre, "An Illustrated Dictionary of Surrealism."
6.2 Online Documents
What is Surrealism? by Andre Breton:
http://pers-www.wlv.ac.uk/~fa1871/whatsurr.html
What is Surrealism? by Andre Breton (alternative link):
http://www-e815.fnal.gov/~romosan/surrealism.html
Declaration of January 27, 1925:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1925surrealism.html
Murderous Humanitarianism:
http://www.postfun.com/racetraitor/features/murderous.html
6.3 Online Surrealist Groups
The Chicago Group: http://www.surrealism-usa.org/
The Czech & Slovak Group: http://home.ti.cz/~surreal/surrealindex.html
The Netherlands Group: http://www.geocities.com/surrealisme_in_nederland/
The Paris Group: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jjmeric/
The Portugal Group: http://members.tripod.co.uk/surrealismo/
The Stockholm Group: http://www.users.wineasy.se/vertsurr/
Surrealists in Minnesota: http://www.magneticfields.org/
The Wisconsin Group: http://www.execpc.com/~bogartte/Counterclockwise.html
6.4 Online Surrealist Resources
The Library: http://www.kalin.lm.com/author.html
No More Words:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rmutt/dictionary/NoMoreWords.html
Surrealist Writers: http://www.creative.net/~alang/lit/surreal/writers.sht
6.5 FAQ Acknowledgements
Brandon Freels (brandon...@netzero.net): principal author, editor.
Parry Harnden (ame...@norlink.net): contributing author.
February 10, 2001
Dale Houstman
> explain. Thank you.
>
Nik Maack
Alexander wrote:
> What is surrealism? Is it realism or is it something else? Please
> explain. Thank you.
A buddhist monk once had a dream that he was a butterfly. When he
awoke, he was a monk again. He asked himself, "Am I monk who dreamt he
was a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming he's a monk?"
I think surrealism is all about reminding people, and others, that we
are both ourselves and butterflies.
Nik
Brandon Freels
taoist and it was in the the Chuang-tzu (Zhuang-zi) if I remember correctly.
"Nik Maack" <nikm...@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:3BC4C5CB...@sympatico.ca...
Morpheal
> What is surrealism? Is it realism or is it something else? Please
> explain. Thank you.
He was going to start a surrealism pool, and everyone gets to pick a
square for a dollar. Later we see who wins.
> Peace. :-)
He was then going to continue in his new life as a bookie, taking bets
and placing wagers as to the futures of various philosophies and
artistic movements.....
> Yours truly,
> Alexander the Geek
Surrealism is the loss of one r.
That's all.
Simply that one loss.
One little r changed everything.
M.
Brandon Freels
"Brandon Freels" <b.j.f...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:Oy4x7.89777$3d2.2...@bgtnsc06-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
Morpheal
> awoke, he was a monk again. He asked himself, "Am I monk who dreamt he
> was a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming he's a monk?"
That was a taoist monk, wasn't it ?
Monk shmunk,... all it means is that he had not yet discovered his
sexuality. Hey, what's that thing fluttering down there between my legs
he said.... It seems it can rise up under my robes and fly... must be a
butterfly....
Yeah,.... monks..... Thelonius excepted of course. Later on Chang Tzu,
the buy with the butterfly problem, would have poured combustible fluid
over himself, lit an ember, and immolated.... except that had not been
discovered yet. Future monks were to find they way to that after
centuries of careful, and meticulous, experimentation.
> I think surrealism is all about reminding people, and others, that we
> are both ourselves and butterflies.
> Nik
I am myself, Nik, but I am definitely NOT a butterfly.
Strangely surreal though how the one freezer section is labelled
butterfly chops. I don't know where the butcher finds butterflies that
are that massively huge so as to chop them....
M.
Morpheal
Oh, wabooga, wabooga, kazoo, fizbee-wally-so-kawilikers, gazooga,
gazooga, gazooga, be finagawee, be finagawee, wabooga, wabooga, wabooga,
be finagawee, finagawee, fizbee-wally-so-kawilikers....
Chanted at least twelve times.
Now will you please amend the FAQ appropriately and accordingly.
You've still got that same old bad habit that all the newbies at the
surreal lodge tend to have, and that is you completely and overly
intellectualize surrealism.
Now will you please go and explain that to Alexander, who chose a very
grandiose name, and should be off fighting Persians rather than seeking
the holy melted clock....
M.
john adams
"Dale Houstman" <dm...@citilink.com> wrote in message news:9q2fl...@enews1.newsguy.com...
I would disagree and reiterate that surrealism is sur-realism (over, above, beyond-realism).
But, how is anything more realist? If we are speaking in terms of the artistic, surrealism has
no real interest in "representing" things how they "exist". It seems to reduce the importance
of the dream and inner realms in favor of the objective, logical order of the perceived. But I would
agree that through dream, the unconcious, the liberation of our thinking/being, we are tapping a
greater portion of "what might be experienced".
Alexander
a dance. Thank you.
Yours truly,
Alexander The Great and I am not a Geek; just curious that's all.
P.S. Let's use some mature wordings in the future shall we; we are not
teenagers or little children who are running a mock.
Alexander
Pantheism which says that we and everything else in The Universe are
each individually are a part of The Universe? Pan = All and Theism or
theos = God or God like. Pantheism = All Is God or The Totality of
All that which Exist Are God, The Universe, The Totality, The Divine if
you will or prefer. Please explain to me without the song and dance.
Brandon Freels
kin...@hfwork1.tn.tudelft.nl
> Now that I know what Surrealism is, I wish to know if it agrees with
> Pantheism which says that we and everything else in The Universe are
> theos = God or God like. Pantheism = All Is God or The Totality of
> All that which Exist Are God, The Universe, The Totality, The Divine if
> Thank you.
#Paul
Dale Houstman
"john adams" <johnqa...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:8j6x7.6116$0Z6.4...@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
>
> "Dale Houstman" <dm...@citilink.com> wrote in message
news:9q2fl...@enews1.newsguy.com...
>
> "Alexander" <poo...@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:3BC4A272...@sympatico.ca...
> > What is surrealism? Is it realism or is it something else? Please
> > explain. Thank you.
> >
>
> >Brandon's ongoing FAQs answers most of any questions you might
immediately have, but the short answer is
> >that - yes surrealism IS realism, only more so. It is a philosophy whose
sole aim is to regain all the fields
> of >realism that have been lost over the centuries to power and commerce,
and to restore to everyone the full
> >range of their imaginative possibilities, while liberating them from the
banal, the crudities of mere
> capital, and >a million other corruptions that systems of control and
exploitation (religions, corporate
> interests, a wretched >media, etc.) have instituted to such a degree that
many cannot even dream that it might
> be different than it >already is.
>
> I would disagree and reiterate that surrealism is sur-realism (over,
above, beyond-realism).
> But, how is anything more realist?
Breton and the others (and myself) don't see it this way: they see that the
human view of "realism" has been stunted and restricted by power and
restrictions of all kinds, and that surrealism is a process by which we
might return to that "greater reality."
If we are speaking in terms of the artistic, surrealism has
> no real interest in "representing" things how they "exist". It seems to
reduce the importance
> of the dream and inner realms in favor of the objective, logical order of
the perceived. But I would
> agree that through dream, the unconcious, the liberation of our
thinking/being, we are tapping a
> greater portion of "what might be experienced".
That "dreams" are thought of as not being a part of reality is partly what
the surrealists were fighting: dreams are part of that ground to be
recovered. As for your aesthetic comment, no one is saying surrealists were
strict representationalists of the reality we are "given" but again and
again they refer to such depictions as representations of the greater and
unrestricted reality. Breton thinks of paintings as "windows." Dali relied
upon (and wrote about) an almost photographic technique to present a
reality.
Surrealism is about "more reality" and much is made of melding dream reality
to waking reality so as to regain a fuller view. Surrealists didn't reject
one for the other.
dmh
>
>
Nik Maack
Brandon Freels wrote:
>
> Unbelievable. I think I agree. But he wasn't a buddhist monk, he was a
> taoist and it was in the the Chuang-tzu (Zhuang-zi) if I remember correctly.
I think it's funny that you're trying to remember if he's a butterfly
and a buddhist monk, or a butterfly and a taoist monk. This adds to the
parable in a very strange way.
Did anyone else besides me chuckle when they saw that this surrealist
newbie's question, "What is surrealism?" once again started an enormous
thread of answers and counter-answers?
Nik
Nik Maack
If surrealism is a pursuit of truth and totality, and you want to
believe that everything (the entire universe) is one big god, then the
two things do seem to be compatible.
Surrealists tend to sneer at religion. At least, historically they did,
with a few exceptions. Dali liked the taste of Jesus. Near the end of
his life, Andre Breton, the founder of surrealism, started to find
interesting thoughts in taoism. He saw taoism as compatible to surrealism.
I think there's definitely a link between God = universe, and surrealism
as a pursuit of "God" -- but that God bears little or no resemblance to
the God talked about in churches on Sundays. This God is a totality, a
pattern, an all pervasive "meaning", that only the craziest surrealist
can ever hope to understand.
If conscious thought is created simply by the complexity of a system,
then maybe a city has a consciousness. And if a city does, a country
does. And if a country does, then a planet does. And if a planet does,
then the universe must. But that higher complexity will be forever
outside our grasp.
And thus the Kurt Vonnegut novel "Sirens of Titan" comes into existence.
Catch the reference? If not, read it. Aliens need us to make a key
because they locked theirs inside their spaceship.
Nik
Morpheal
> Its the last paragraph of the chapter "On Levelling All Things"
You been contemplating the zen of the World Trade Towers ?
Sigh....
M.
Morpheal
> a dance. Thank you.
If you join in with surrealists you might find you must enjoy song and
dance... Surrealism IS a song and dance number.
> Yours truly,
> Alexander The Great and I am not a Geek; just curious that's all.
Delusions of grandiosity or true genius ?
Let's simply say Alexander the Who ? Soldier, sailor, tinker, tailor...
> P.S. Let's use some mature wordings in the future shall we; we are not
> teenagers or little children who are running a mock.
A mock turtle soup.... served up steaming full of seances.
Will you have some choice words with that, sir ? They are special
today, and Cythera claims her's are always fresh.
M.
Morpheal
The answer is a resounding NO !
The universe is not pantheistic, it is in fact panchromatic.
Pan theism is the belief that fried gods make good eating.
We do not follow that persuasion here. Having tasted a few morsels I can
assure you they are not very good eating. I suspected some sort of
surreal fraud because neither the unlevened bread nor the sip of red
wine turned out to be real flesh nor real blood. What a disappointment.
I was expecting something more.
As to the song and dance.... that's what the universe is.
Nothing more, nothing less, than a song and dance.
M.
john adams
"Dale Houstman" <dm...@citilink.com> wrote in message news:9q3q8...@enews3.newsguy.com...
I think we are in slight agreement, except I guess I'm not fully satisfied with
the phrasing. You say that surrealism is realism, only more of it. Well I take realism
to be similar to along these lines, taken from Webster's: "Fidelity to nature
or to real life; representation without idealization, and making no appeal to
the imagination; adherence to the actual fact. " or "the philosophical doctrine that
abstract concepts exist independent of their names", for instance. But clearly
we agree on the role of consciousness (including abstraction) and perceived reality.
In the earlier years it was a "purely intuitive" approach, upholding the interior and dream
realm, as in the first manifesto, as well as eventually uniting both the outer and inner
as seen through one process of interplay. Then later, with Marxism flirtings,
there was a lean towards materialism and reason. And I think, later in reflection,
this concentration was partly realized to have been over-emphasized by Breton.
> If we are speaking in terms of the artistic, surrealism has
> > no real interest in "representing" things how they "exist". It seems to
> reduce the importance
> > of the dream and inner realms in favor of the objective, logical order of
> the perceived. But I would
> > agree that through dream, the unconcious, the liberation of our
> thinking/being, we are tapping a
> > greater portion of "what might be experienced".
>
> That "dreams" are thought of as not being a part of reality is partly what
> the surrealists were fighting: dreams are part of that ground to be
> recovered. As for your aesthetic comment, no one is saying surrealists were
> strict representationalists of the reality we are "given" but again and
> again they refer to such depictions as representations of the greater and
> unrestricted reality. Breton thinks of paintings as "windows." Dali relied
> upon (and wrote about) an almost photographic technique to present a
> reality.
>
> Surrealism is about "more reality" and much is made of melding dream reality
> to waking reality so as to regain a fuller view. Surrealists didn't reject
> one for the other.
That's true, the two are suffused together on the path to realizing innate
desires and enhancing our experience. I think knowledge and awareness
should be seperated from the term reality, as somehow to me the term sounds
too static. Who is to determine what is more reality? Only ourselves!
Morpheal
>Who is to determine what is more reality? Only ourselves!
Now, now, now.... leave something for the machines to do !
M.
Morpheal
>
> Unbelievable. I think I agree. But he wasn't a buddhist monk, he was a
> taoist and it was in the the Chuang-tzu (Zhuang-zi) if I remember correctly.
Whomever he was he had serious identity problems, and probably very poor
ego function. First it was a butterfly, then it was a clod of earth,
then it was a block of uncarved wood. He simply had no idea of his own
boundaries of self and even less idea as to who he really was......
As such he likely lived to a ripe old age.
Probably outlived the emperor.
M.
john adams
"Morpheal" <morp...@sympatico.ca> wrote in message news:3BC64354...@sympatico.ca...
>
> Now, now, now.... leave something for the machines to do !
Are you thinking what I'm thinking, that battle-bots are going to
rule the world?
Morpheal
No.
Who owns and controls the battle-bots will rule the world.
M.
Dale Houstman
Better than being in a sleeping bag together, I'd venture (although without
any evidence).
>...except I guess I'm not fully satisfied with
> the phrasing. You say that surrealism is realism, only more of it. Well I
take realism
> to be similar to along these lines, taken from Webster's: "Fidelity to
nature
> or to real life; representation without idealization, and making no appeal
to
> the imagination; adherence to the actual fact. " or "the philosophical
doctrine that
> abstract concepts exist independent of their names", for instance.
There's no essential disagreement I would agree, but I think those
definitions of reality are made by people who don't include dreams as a
vital part of reality, but as some romantic flight. Such an idea is inherent
in their poetry. It's a small distinction no doubt, but post-Freud, I think
one would be able to claim that these working of the "unconscious" are - if
anything - more central to how we "get along" in relative darkness. There's
no reason to push the point, but the idea that dreams ARE reality (and that
portion of the greater reality that has been censored and cordoned off from
most people's grasp) is made clear in most surrealist texts, so - in terms
of a surrealist definition of realism I think one would have to conclude
that reality includes the "stuff of dreams" and that there is no essential
dividing line between that and what is "granted" us by those who most profit
from this debasement.
>But clearly
> we agree on the role of consciousness (including abstraction) and
perceived reality.
> In the earlier years it was a "purely intuitive" approach, upholding the
interior and dream
> realm, as in the first manifesto, as well as eventually uniting both the
outer and inner
> as seen through one process of interplay. Then later, with Marxism
flirtings,
> there was a lean towards materialism and reason. And I think, later in
reflection,
> this concentration was partly realized to have been over-emphasized by
Breton.
By all means.
>
> > If we are speaking in terms of the artistic, surrealism has
> > > no real interest in "representing" things how they "exist".
I don't entirely agree. Obviously, one cannot look at a Magritte or a Miro,
or etc. and claim without explication that they are representing a "real
world" but the surrealists themselves seem to heartily disagree, and see no
hard fast division here. Breton's comments about always seeing a painting as
a "window" is pertinnet here, although the meaning of that (like so much of
his work) is probably debatable. The work isn't strictly representational of
the phyiscal reality of course, but that isn't the point I would suppose.
But this is beginning to sound more semantic than critical.
>It seems to
> > reduce the importance
> > > of the dream and inner realms in favor of the objective, logical order
of
> > the perceived.
I think it does just the opposite: by putting dreams on the same order of
reality as a pot holder, one is both delimiting the mythology of the dream,
and raising it to a more solid footing as event.
> >
> > Surrealism is about "more reality" and much is made of melding dream
reality
> > to waking reality so as to regain a fuller view. Surrealists didn't
reject
> > one for the other.
>
> That's true, the two are suffused together on the path to realizing innate
> desires and enhancing our experience. I think knowledge and awareness
> should be seperated from the term reality, as somehow to me the term
sounds
> too static. Who is to determine what is more reality? Only ourselves!
A new term is never a bad idea. This all lies in the field of perception,
and I always defer to Barrett on such things, as he is vastly more
well-versed in cognition than I am or - really - want to be.
dmh
john adams
"Morpheal" <morp...@sympatico.ca> wrote in message news:3BC768E8...@sympatico.ca...
So, now you're saying battle-bots won't rule the world? I'm confused...
Morpheal
>
> "Dale Houstman" <dm...@citilink.com> wrote in message news:<9q7o0...@enews3.newsguy.com>...
> > "john adams" <johnqa...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> > news:jEqx7.10140$7B1.6...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> > > "Dale Houstman" <dm...@citilink.com> wrote in message
> > news:9q3q8...@enews3.newsguy.com...
> > > > > > "john adams" <johnqa...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> > > > news:8j6x7.6116$0Z6.4...@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> > > > >> > > "Dale Houstman" <dm...@citilink.com> wrote in message
> > news:9q2fl...@enews1.newsguy.com...
> > > > > > > > > "Alexander" <poo...@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> > news:3BC4A272...@sympatico.ca...
> > > > > > What is surrealism?
They are only academics, not surrealists.
They argue about what surrealism is, rather than doing, being, becoming,
practicing, surrealism.
M.