The TLS reprints an article by the late lamented George Melly on games played by the surrealists, such as 'Exquisite Corpses'.
It may puzzle the more pompous as to why this body of men and women, these ardent revolutionaries of the spirit, spent so much time engaged in occupations usually considered more suitable for bored children on wet afternoons. The answer is, to quote the preface, that “Surrealist play is more like a kind of provocative magic”, that it “breaks, the thread of discursive thought” and, above all, helps to confirm the primary Surrealist belief in what they called “objective chance” or “the certainty of hazard”. These games will prove to you that not only was Lautréamont justified as to poetry; one could add a rider: “Surrealism too can be made by all.”
Their version of charades sounds fun, though I am still trying to work out the best way to mime, “How do you reconcile your love of women and your taste for sodomy?”
(Thanks to Mike)
1 comment:
A long article, and all we get here is the bit off the bottom :-)
Post a Comment