A bit of surrealism

It feels like so long this last week. Though the weeks are slow when you have a job like mine. It's been an interesting week for exploring though. I've taken to writing a bit every day and who would have thought absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder.

Anyway, I'll quickly get to the point of this post. When I got my poetry assignment back, my tutor a very intelligent (annoyingly so...is there any other type) told me my poems that are trying to expose the conceit of the reader, two examples are the last two poems I posted "[...]" and 'Awake with the Dreamer". It's all basically about never letting the reader forget that they are there and that they cannot escape from their seats, it's like going to a play and having the lights in the pews turned on while the actors bathe in darkness and clap and jeer at the audience. It's a fun concept I have to admit, but he recommended to me that I look at some surrealist writers, above all that I read more widely. Trust me there is a whole lot of wide to read.

So I browsed this week a few people. A bit superficially (for now). Anton Breton, Pierre Reverdy and Rene Char, all of these men are intimately connected with something called surrealism. Now I managed to find a completely free and accessible article off google, written by Anton Breton, but if you want a good idea of what surrealism is (and by the way it's not about melting clocks - cos that's what I used to think you know that Dali guy). So what is surrealist writing? Because that's what we're talking about, well I'll let my acquaintence explain a little:

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 the thought, in the absence of any

control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or

moral concern.
Hmm, let's get another definition shall we. It's my experience that you can always do with a different perspective (a thought I find that never fails to present wonderful new ideas). Now this next passage describes I think in the clearest terms what surrealism is and how does it do it, by walking us through the process, which you'll see is hardly walking at all (unless most of us walk blindfolded)

After you have settled yourself in a place as favorable as

possible to the concentration of your mind upon itself, have

writing materials brought to you. Put yourself in as passive, or

receptive, a state of mind as you can. Forget about your

genius, your talents, and the talents of everyone else. Keep

reminding yourself that literature is one of the saddest roads

that leads to everything. Write quickly, without any

preconceived subject, fast enough so that you will not

remember what you're writing and be tempted to reread what

you have written. The first sentence will come spontaneously,

so compelling is the truth that with every passing second there

is a sentence unknown to our consciousness which is only

crying out to be heard...

So it is an interesting thought isn't it. Simply not to think, just write that first sentence and see what you come up with. Will you get something more pure. Like a lot of writing of this type, poetry becomes a fascinating experiment with language. Well I find it fascinating and by the way, both these quotes are from that piece of writing I talked about by Andre Breton, I'll post a link to the article if you want to read. The first bit is a bit heady for the normal person, but it's not too bad. I mean if you want something truly impossible to read I'd recommend Heidegger "Being and Time"...but that's a topic for another day.


http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm

Anyway, that is just a bit of surrealism for ya!