Investigating_Sex Surrealist Research
Lynn Bry
I received and am posting this review written by David Westling.
Commentary or replies may be posted in alt.surrealism or sent
directly to him at U55945%UICVM.bitnet.@WUVMD.Wustl.Edu
chquta
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Here is the first section of a review of
_Investigating Sex Surrealist Research 1928-1932_.
If love was Surrealism in its broad daylight, sex was its deepest mid-
night. These discussions constitute one of the boldest and most dangerous
attempts by the surrealists to uncover the myth of their time. Andre Breton,
the only one who attended all twelve sessions, thought this myth was to be
evoked by questions: "A man and a woman make love. To what extent is the
man aware of the woman's orgasm?" The lack of a satisfactory response
points to a most disconcerting realization: this enterprise, the surrealist
adventure, predicated on the notion that a sublime unity can be achieved
by group activity, as exemplified in the surrealist game, is fraught with
far more discord and incoherence than other manifestations of the
surrealist experience would indicate. The exclusions of 1929-30 are presaged
here, especially in the case of Antonin Artaud, who seems to have set out
to deliberately antagonize the other surrealists and Breton especially by
denigrating the sexual act, whether infused with or bereft of love, in
favor of "an intellectual calling of the highest order". But the discussions
do far more than point up the more obvious incompatibilities between a view
such as Artaud's, with its overt hostility to sexual love, and the "ortho-
dox" surrealist conception; they expose the more subtle but nonetheless still
potentially devastating disharmonies such as the debate concerning the
exact relation between sex and love, and the need for reciprocity in love.
The discussions certainly can't be faulted for lack of probity; the
directness with which the riddles of sexual dynamics is discussed is
astonishing even by today's standards. Questions such as "What do you
think about when you masturbate?" alternate with exchanges concerning the
ability and desirability of falling asleep after sex with the penis still
inside the vagina, and what one might say at the moment of climax.
One of the most interesting discussions, for me, was the fifth, in
which Max Ernst took part. Early in the session, after some surprising remarks
on the orgasm of women, he asserts that his own orgasm precedes ejaculation
by "perhaps a few seconds", and meets the incredulity expressed by saying
that here was one of the critical problems of existence, the need to locate
and experience the most propitious moment by living more consciously.
Later on, the conversation turns to the relation between surrealism and
optimism, with one of the participants, Raymond Queneau, expressing dismay
at the others' hope at discovering the woman that could take the role of
an ultimate destiny. Ernst finds this attitude indicative of "bourgeois
skepticism" and accuses Queneau of contradictory attitudes in his simul-
taneous support of surrealism in the abstract and denial of the possibility
of the kind of love that Ernst and Breton envisioned. Breton ends the
session with a meditation on physical beauty that takes the other
participants to task for the Christianish conceptions on the irrelevance
of appearance; the contemplation of woman's physical beauty was paramount.
This too is surrealism.
One of the oppositions that the surrealists believed would at some
perspective cease to be perceived as contradictory, that of materialism
and idealism, is explored in an exchange between Breton and Queneau.
Breton asks if Queneau gave creedence to the theory that the rubbing of
a sheet on the sexual organ during sleep could produce orgasm, to which
Queneau replied in the affirmative. One can imagine the sense of finality
that must have been apparent in Breton's verdict, "Materialism." Ernst
adds emphasis: "Anti-surrealist." The dream pierced the hegemony of the
outer world by creating the dynamics of experience. Positivism was the
great enemy. Love became the meeting ground between the the materialist
domain of sex and the ideational territory of the dream. This love that
transcended any purely materialist conception was uncomfortably close in
its resemblance to religion, where the dividing line between the servitude
of blind faith and the joy of total investment in the being of another is
indistinct. Breton's lament that love is the greatest despair because of
the prospect of the extinguishment of the self, and that, moreover, this
depersonalization is to be actively pursued, is not linked to any explor-
ation of the deeper questions of identity. Breton evidently did not place
much credence in the idea of love as a galvanizer of identity. Love is
diametrically opposed to freedom in the surrealist view, at least in
some senses. But this state is to be preferred because it replaces the
feeling of "being free for no good reason" with a sense of elevating purpose.
The surrealists' attitude to homosexuality has been the subject of
much discussion and debate. Specifically, their repudiation of male homo-
sexuality while at the same time maintaining a positive attitude toward
lesbianism hs been seen as a major flaw in the sexual philosophy of the
group. One exchange sheds some light on this problem. Breton is asked about
sexual contact between men that does not involve sodomy; is this still homo-
sexual? Breton answers that this is an embryonic form of homosexuality between
men but that male homosexuality is necessarily linked to sodomy. One
could draw the conclusion that Breton's objection is based on an aversion
to the idea of passive anal intercourse on the part of the man. And yet,
Breton is sympathetic to anal intercourse with women. This fuzziness is
not delved into any more deeply, unfortunately.
For me, these discussions describe a new dimension to the surrealist
enterprise in general and their experience of sexuality in particular.
It is amazing to observe surrealism being articulated in the dialectic of the
I and thou, in real conversation, a perspective that evinces a vitality
rarely if ever equalled in the movement's other manifestations. These con-
versations give new impetus to the exploration of the difficult and mag-
nificent worlds that surrealism was the first to conquer.
David Westling