Newsgroup: alt.surrealism
Michael Betancourt
actually act to test surrealism?
Anyone who answers the question asked is not acting in a
surreal fashion; hence, anyone who actually takes the test has
failed it.
This test seems more a test of truth and willingness to
disclosure than a test of surrealism.
Mike Landau
>surreal fashion; hence, anyone who actually takes the test has
>failed it.
>
>This test seems more a test of truth and willingness to
>disclosure than a test of surrealism.
What basis are you using in determining that anyone taking the test is
not acting in a surreal fashion? The basis of surrealism is the rejection
of false and destructive social pretenses as to what is true and valuable,
and the will to replace it with psychic truth in order to transform the
world, or at least a corner of it. Dreams, automatism, and the
exploration of the unconscious are tools used for those ends, not special
effects.
The surrealists historically asked probing questions [Is insanity a
solution? is an example] and requested replies from interested parties.
They also engaged in truth-telling games. So while the Surrealism Test is
not a traditional surrealist activity, in both form and purpose it falls
within that tradition.
Surrealism Test Center
Mike Landau
<to determine how surreal they are
Hm. The test certainly does not test how surreal people are. Its aim is
rather to create a more surreal reality in those who take it.
<First, Surrealism grew out of Dada and retained some key characteristics
of
<it, most markedly in its provocations and its unwillingness to
cooperate
<with the status quo
The test is intended as a provocation and a rejection of the status quo
of surface truth.
<Testing has always been a tool used by those in control of the s.q.
The Surrealism Test Center has no pretension to control of the surrealist
movement. Testing is voluntary and is not used for social advancement.
The interpretation of the Surrealism Test Center as a pillar of the
establishment is a stretch.
Perhaps it's more the implications you find in the word 'Test' you object
to more than the relevance of the questions to surrealism?
Again, the Test tests willingness to answer its questions and aims to
perform a surreal function in doing so; it does *not* claim to test
surreality.
<Also, "psychic truth" as used by the surrealists was (and Breton states
as
<much in the late 40s) little more then a provocation of what they saw a
<corrupt bourgeois society.
I disagree with this assessment. I see the surrealist movement's search
for psychic truth as its essential core and not as simply a social
provocation.Apparently we interpret Breton's position differently.
Surrealism Test Center
Jumgolaya
agntshawn
Ed Germain
--The Surrealism Test Center has no pretension to control of the
surrealist
-- movement. Testing is voluntary and is not used for social advancement.
-- The interpretation of the Surrealism Test Center as a pillar of the
-- establishment is a stretch.
Even seeing Surrealism as establishment is a stretch, or a sadness.
-- <Also, "psychic truth" as used by the surrealists was (and Breton
states
-- as
-- <much in the late 40s) little more then a provocation of what they saw
a
-- <corrupt bourgeois society.
-- I disagree with this assessment. I see the surrealist movement's
search
-- for psychic truth as its essential core and not as simply a social
-- provocation.Apparently we interpret Breton's position differently.
Of course you are right, Mike. In the 40's Breton remained true to
psychic automatism as a "Limit, Not Frontier" of surrealism, as a
lodestone.
It is probably less helpful to return now to Breton, instead of moving
ahead. Much of surrealist archetexture (I'm thinking of the term Mary
Ann Caws uses in her subtitle of "A Metapoetics of the Passage")has long
since passed into everyday life.