For those who know me or my work, this was an inevitable prompt, and with Kerry's recent post on "Things Salvador Dali Said", it seemed fitting to continue the theme; that being Surrealism, or more specifically for this week's prompt, surreal poetry.
I once read that "the surreal" is simply the things we see before our constraints block them out, so this week I ask you to delve into your psyche and subconscious to produce a surreal poem, take things that seem quite ordinary and subvert them, twist them, change them. I'm a firm believer in 'we're only as limited as our language', so use your words to rearrange the world. Some find this easier by drawing on a dream, so that may help, or simply look out of the window, what looks odd or painfully ordinary and how can you fix it? As is customary with surreal poetry, there are no rules or guides to this, the less structure and premeditation the better, tap into the subconscious as Freud would say. I'm not precluding a form piece, but I've yet to find a truly surreal form poem (though you may take that challenge if you so wish haha). For further elaboration - think unique, associations that haven't been done before, strange metaphors, comparisons which in theory simply don't work, but when put together somehow do.
Here are some quotes to inspire, and below the picture
"Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision." - Dali
"Surrealism is not a school of poetry but a movement of liberation ... A way of rediscovering the language of innocence, a renewal of the primordial pact, poetry is the basic text, the foundation of the human order. Surrealism is revolutionary because it is a return to the beginning of all beginnings." - Octavio Paz
Among those who do not comprehend surrealism are people who look upon the real as verifiable, as something to be checked against past experience or observation. These individuals fail to see that for the surrealist the dimensions of the real cannot be gauged by reference to the familiar. So far as the real appears to have limits, they are foisted upon it by the mental, emotional, and imaginative limitations of spectators accustomed to measure the possible by the already known. - John Herbert Matthews
Surrealism is embedded in the everyday, in the daily experience. - Katherine Conley
I've chosen a very deliberately ambiguous and surreal picture - there is a lot going on, and you can draw on whatever aspects appeal to you, I'm personally drawn straight to the kitchen type set up on the jaw, from which the fishes seem to be escaping with feet!? Have fun with this one, if you've not tried an abstract/surreal piece before, you may get a taste for it! And if you have, well here's another chance to do one (new works would be better as it is a prompt) - I look forward to seeing the results!
14 Toads & Flowers:
I apologize for the ridiculous spacing and format issues, the blog is never accommodating of my needs!
I'm here.. Linky's up. Phew!
A truly fitting prompt from you sir :-P
Something I shall endeavour to sink my teeth firmly into this weekend.
this is an old one,but seemed surreal enough:)
Wow, being early for a prompt is unusual for me. Wha hoppen ? :)Must mean my brain enjoys the surreal! Often more enjoyable than the real. Off to work now - see what I mean? hee hee.
I enjoyed this... thanks!
a great way to twist your brain into glorious knots :). is there (do you think) any true or technical difference between surrealism and magical realism? is it more a question of genre? two different schools, but they have always seemed so similar to me.
Great question Shawnacy! I've not read extensively on it, but from what I have, the way I've constructed this prompt is a little broader than perhaps typical surrealism or magical realism would be, but I agree with you that generally the differences are overplayed.
Traditionally, it seems that magic realism focuses on subverting the real or what you see, everything as crazy as it may be has some "realism" attached to it, some possibility perhaps - whereas surrealism is normally playing more on the impossible, bringing about newer things, though often playing on the "real" too. I think often they get swept into one or the other (normally just "surrealism" which tends to have a broader scope). I think there is a difference, however the significance of the difference is up for debate for sure - in my opinion nothing is ever truly impossible or purely surreal, whether conscious or not we draw on things we know and twist them etc. - so some say surrealism is more "out there" than magic realism - but the lines are blurred - in this prompt I've blurred them and often do in my writing too! I think it defeats the point of both M.realism and surrealism to start qualifying them, so I leave it to the artist/poet to self-define!
so my interpretation!
thanks OT. :) it was my trip through the latin american authors and poets that made me fall in love with m. realism. and through that with surrealism proper. maybe too, that surrealism tends to span the arts. there is visual surrealism like dali and concrete three-dimensional surrealism like gaudi, surrealist theatre, and i imagine there have to be surrealist musicians... (maybe most music is an exercise in surrealism, actually) whereas m.realism tends to work better simply with narrative.
and you're so right. art is all about constantly shifting perspective - even on art itself. changing hte meanings of the things that define art...
great prompt. :)
Surreal? OMG.
yes you're right actually, I hadn't thought of that as I was thinking just in terms of literature, but I've not really seen m. realism used to describe other types like art, music etc. whereas there is obviously tons of surreal paintings etc. - interesting! but then that could just be the term surreal being used for everything slightly odd, who knows, I don't think a writer/artist can avoid using some surreal elements in their work, or it'd all get very stale!
Got to love that she has a toggle switch on her forehead.
Hi OT .. I'll be back in a while .. and will link back when I do -
I really want to read a bit more and understand what the artists were doing when they scraped away the old ways of doing things and hit the new button .. thanks - looking forward to being back (sometime) .. cheers Hilary
Not sure I handled surrealism adequately, but I gave it a shot. Love the challenge and how it had me thinking outside my norm.
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