Surrealist Subversions: Rants, Writings and Images by the Surrealist Movement in the United States

by Ron Sakolsky (Editor), Franklin Rosemont (Foreword)

From its auspicious beginnings in the summer of 1966 to the present, the Chicago Surrealist Group — and the Surrealist Movement in the United States, which grew out of it — has brightly illuminated the pathways of absolute divergence that define the intrinsically anarchist trajectory of the surrealist adventure. Drawing on the full range of U.S. surrealist publications and communiques from the front lines of the battle against miserabilism, this volume contains over 200 texts (many appearing here for the first time) by more than 50 participants, in the most comprehensive, diverse and lavishly illustrated compilation of American surrealist writings ever assembled.

Genres: Art, Surreal, Poetry

748 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

Reviews

[Jordan West · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nigh-authoritative resource on the US surrealist movement, but suffers somewhat from concentrating almost exclusively on theoretical texts as opposed to poetry; also, contains my first published piece, a mini-surrealist manifesto.

[Alia]

This anthology is pretty ill. I picked it up at the anarchist bookfair in San Fransisco last Spring- a good place to encounter it- there is much revolutionary potential within the book's bizarre covers! I didn't know what surrealism was before beginning this book. It's been very cool to study an art form so new/foreign to me. From what I gather, surrealism is making your dreams become reality, and realizing the poetry/marvelous in everyday life. Surrealism encourages the polar opposite of rigid dogmatism and banality, which I think it crucial for political and social movements. I like that this anthology has both snippets of writer's thoughts, poetry, and artwork alongside longer pieces on patriarchy, sexual oppression, race traitor ideology, history lesson, and much-needed calls for the abolition of work (as we know it today). Surrealist Subversions is over 700 pages long so there is MUCH I'm not touching on in this reveiw.

[Nate D]

American Surrealism since the 60s, via the Chicago group (the only organized surrealism here, it seems) and outliers. Since this turns out to be almost entirely theory essays, interesting but somewhat repetitious, this is definitely going to be more of a reference book to dig up names I've recently struck upon than anything I'd read cover to cover. But so far it's been interesting to jump around in, so I'm going to make one pass at pulling in useful bits out before I set it aside.

[Keenan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great collection of essays, poetry, art and communiques. Strongly recommended for anyone curious about surrealism or anyone inspired by anarchist musings. I had read a bit of surrealist writing before reading this book, but it is truly a massive collection of works, spanning a variety of eras and topics. To me this book was a living archive, opposing the deadening tendency of the academy or the stupefaction caused by corporate media. Excellent for anyone who is experiencing mental constipation and a beautiful cure for those who suffering under the delusions of capital and consumerism. This book will inspire you to lazy daydreams in the hold of the boring cargo ship of modernity, and to rebel against the captains of the ship while you're at it! Down with work in any form, this book encourages play!

To quote Penelope Rosemont in an excerpt from her essay "A Brief Rant Against Work": "Work kills the spirit, damages the body, insults the mind, keeps everyone confused and demoralized, distracts its victims from all the things that really matter in life...Our struggle calls for labor organizers of a new kind...To bring about the meltdown of miserabilism, we need awakeners of latent desires, fomentors of marvelous humour, stimulators of ardent dreams, provokers of the deepest possible yearning for a life of poetic adventure." Long live surrealist insurrection!

[yana · Rating 4 out of 5]

trying to rate this is like trying to rate a subject-specific dictionary. remarkable collection of work