Surrealism As Study Of Mind.
Andrea Chen
>
> The musical analogies also tell us that a hexagonal mosaic
> is like a plainchant choir, singing in the lockstep of a
> Gregorian chant. As the triangular arrays recruit followers
> on the edges, additional hexagons are added to the
> mosaic. Perhaps choosing between an apple and a
> banana for a snack is a matter of how big their choirs are.
The above is from a serious talk on the brain. The hexagonal mosaics
and triangular arrays are connections of neurons and their physical
shapes.
The statement is a hypothesis on how we might arrive at the thought "I
want a banana."
Early surrealism was much concerned with the nature of the mind. A
number of documents published here and web links provided by Brandon
mention (but don't go deeply) into Breton's faith in the mad sexual poet
named Freud.
Automatic writing which several definitions put at the core of
surrealism is clearly based on free association and several other
techniques of letting thoughts flow freely to the couch. Even Dale's
concept of found poetry bears a similar origin though generations of use
in creative writing classes have clouded this.
A "counter Freudianism" was pursued by people like Reich and Marcuse
and Roszak uses it as the defining principle of the "counter culture" (a
word he defined.)
One direction of this was to reverse the carefully channeled sexuality
(oral to anal to genital with an extra jump for women) which Freud felt
necessary for the mantaining of civilization to the "polymorpheous
sexuality" of the infant in which all sensations became erotic. This is
a play on Freudian sexuality and certainly consistent with the original
directions set down by Breton.
(I challenge Dale and others to cease their resort to vague accusations
and face this issue directly.)
The text I quoted at the top takes a slightly different model of
consciousness and unconsciousness. It defines the mind as competing
musical groups, most playing without our knowledge (unconsciously) but
some briefly seizing control and announcing "I want a banana!"
And then comes the Beatles playing, "an onion, that's what I want!"
I would argue that the usenet group becomes a simple model of this
clash of sounds with connections between groups offering a way to spin
songs about in multiple consciousness as a thread first appears one
place is split, perhaps cut away and popped into another place.
A possible step to surrealism is to return to one of it's roots, the
study of the "mind" and then using this medium itslf to act out that
topic, refining itself, perhaps becoming more "conscious" and
"intelligent" not through hierarchial direction, but through
decentralized bursts of music, blasting out each other and shifting each
others tunes with music theory becoming another model to extend our
"mind" (parodied into text.)
And thus in the somber, anal retentive spirit of our (now expelled)
father Mr. Breton I invite one and all to free associate.
Let us bow our heads and keyboard images of the mind as a text of
flickering pixels.
Annette Fungijello
Andrea Chen (fallin...@earthlink.net) wrote:
> And thus in the somber, anal retentive spirit of our (now expelled)
> father Mr. Breton I invite one and all to free associate.
Dear Friends,
Maybe Rhino is messing with Fred's mind. Anyway, the thing will
apparently be released in October... whatever it's ultimately called.
Er, the new FST CD will be released, not Fred's mind. The Rhino in
his mind won't be released in October.
So, www.firesigntheatre.com is gonna go "full tilt interactive
multimedia," you say? That should be interesting, because FST knows
that bells & whistles are no substitute for content.
A Billville town home page--brilliant concept, Doc. Your Radio Now
website deserves to win big awards. It's a rare example of the web
measuring up to its potential. The most totally bitchen technotoy
since Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time CD-ROM.
--
Annette Fungijello <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/2505/index.html>
Peter Hickman
Andrea Chen wrote:
>
<Snippage of free-associations about Freud and Breton>
> A possible step to surrealism is to return to one of it's roots, the
> study of the "mind" and then using this medium itslf to act out that
> topic, refining itself, perhaps becoming more "conscious" and
> "intelligent" not through hierarchial direction, but through
> decentralized bursts of music, blasting out each other and shifting each
> others tunes with music theory becoming another model to extend our
> "mind" (parodied into text.)
>
> And thus in the somber, anal retentive spirit of our (now expelled)
> father Mr. Breton I invite one and all to free associate.
>
> Let us bow our heads and keyboard images of the mind as a text of
> flickering pixels.
Was surrealism really all that interesting the first time around? Perhaps the
only good thing about it was its deep lack of seriousness about anything but sex.
It wasn't the Freudian Unconscious as a (pre?)linguistic structure that the Big
Surrealists adored, but the kind of reading of the world in terms of a diffuse
sexual allegory that their rather infantile reading of Freud
encouraged....something that hadn't been seen in the "High Culture" of Western
Europe since Causabon discredited the Hermetica in 1610.
Pete
James Meirose
> study of the "mind" and then using this medium itslf to act out that
> topic, refining itself, perhaps becoming more "conscious" and
> "intelligent" not through hierarchial direction, but through
> decentralized bursts of music, blasting out each other and shifting each
> others tunes with music theory becoming another model to extend our
> "mind" (parodied into text.)
>
> And thus in the somber, anal retentive spirit of our (now expelled)
> father Mr. Breton I invite one and all to free associate.
>
> Let us bow our heads and keyboard images of the mind as a text of
> flickering pixels.
Drew Arrington
It is an interesting theory and I am sure that is valid to a
degree (as any of them are). Nice insight, though a little esoteric.
I suppose if you were really into the physics of how thought works and
were trying to figure out how humans are affected by the vibration of
music, it's a pretty good theory. And, of course, it is always nice
to be aware of theories. The thing that I would like to know is:
What is the practicality of me knowing this theory? How can I utilize
this information to grow and change? Of what over all good will this
information do me? I suppose my point is, why write someting that
only a few can understand, when you could write it so that many can?
Are you doing this to get confrimation of your theory or to prove that
you are smart? Or are you honestly trying to communicate an idea to
the masses to further peoples understanding? I don't ask these
questions out of malice, nor am I trying to attack your theory (which
I think is a pretty good one). Either motivation to write is good.
Just trying to find out if you are aware of your motivation and
possibly give some advice. If you are wanting to commmunicate to the
masses, you might want to put the theory into "plain folks" language
and explain the benifits a little more. If, on the other hand, you
have a different motivation, just disreguard this message. Or just
direguard this message anyway. After all, it's only my oppinion.
Nothing more.
With gratitude.
Drew Arrington
We stand around and talk of Masters, while the Masters walk the talk.
Leo Sgouros
instead of the actors or musicians.
Ask yourself how being part of the set or the symphony can help you pass on
positive teachings to others-this alone makes you a better person, IMHO.
If you become a "neuron" in a combo that is not only receptive but
interactive, you are bound to raise your own awareness "gate".
The surrealist paintings I have seen seem to portray a signal overload, not
the other way around.
It is as if all the symbols and the rites of man were there at once and the
artist struggled to portray as much as possible-one can only do this by
hearing or seeing as much as possible.
+l+
Drew Arrington <Dr...@NoWhere.com> wrote in message
news:37bade4e.37790077@news...
Oonh
I don't actually have a feed to alt.surrealism, so I should probably
pester the newsadmins at my site. I've recently looked at surrealistic art
(on webring), and have been getting this icky feeling that if surrealistic
writing is at the same place where surrealistic art is, then there hasn't
been much evolution since Breton's Nadja.
Gooing up reality with disjunctions is like language-floppings, its the
first step in envirogenesis, but it isn't effectual in world building.
Oonh
Leo Sgouros
Oonh <li...@origin.uchicago.edu> wrote in message
news:FGotE...@midway.uchicago.edu...
Perhaps if you write some material yourself instead of looking for what
others have written, using the term surrealism as a license to experiment.
I didnt think something like that needed explaining, but there it is.
The world is full of critics-satisfy them if you can.
+l+
Mark Louden
The ball is in your court now.
Drew Arrington wrote in message <37bade4e.37790077@news>...