Manifestoes of Surrealism.
MANIFESTO OF SURREALISM (1924)
"I
could spend my whole life prying loose the secrets of the insane."1a
"Our
brains are dulled by the incurable mania of wanting to make the
unknown known, classifiable. The desire for analysis wins out over
the sentiments."1b
"I
believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and
reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of
absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so to speak."1c*
"Let us
not mince words: . . . only the marvelous is beautiful."1d
"We
really live by our fantasies when we give free rein to them."1e*
" . . .
[T]his phrase astonished me: . . . it was something like: "There
is a man cut in two by the window . . . ""1f
"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."1g
SOLUBLE FISH (1924)
"In New
York harbor it was no longer the Statue of Liberty that lighted
the world, but Love, which is different."1h
SECOND
MANIFESTO OF SURREALISM
(1930)
"The
simplest Surrealist act consists of dashing down into the
street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly, as fast as you can
pull the trigger, into the crowd. Anyone who, at least once in
his life, has not dreamed of thus putting an end to the petty
system of debasement and cretinization in effect has a
well-defined place in that crowd, with his belly at barrel level.
. . I simply wanted to bring in here the element of
human despair . . ."1i
" . . .
[T]here is a mirror in the mind over which the vast majority of
mankind could lean without seeing themselves."1j
POLITICAL POSITION OF SURREALISM (1935)
"Art
is not a submission, it is a conquest.
The conquest of what?
Of feelings and the means to express them.
About what?
About the unconscious, almost always; about logic, very often."1k*
" . . .
[W]e live in an era in which man belongs to himself less than ever
. . ."1l
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