Weird Fiction discussion

I found another Surrealist short story I really enjoyed, told from the perspective of a sock. I thought it good enough to share with the group. It is by Muhammad Al-Asfar. https://www.shortstoryproject.com/sto...

The translation is adequate, but could be better. The spots where the translator had difficulty, particularly the sentence with the word nargileh, which isn't remotely Arabic or English, I also have trouble. The two words in Arabic he mistranslated nargileh means literally small bird, but it's probably a reference to a dryer part I don't know.

Anyway, enough of the story comes through to be enjoyed, I believe.

I have no idea why you think this story is Surrealist.

Well, at the very bottom of the story are five genre labels, one of which is "surreal." The story has a protagonist that normally can't have human emotions and reactions nevertheless having them, as in one of the Carrington stories. The events happening also symbolize other and different life experiences, the A=B=C thing. And it reads like a dream of being a sock to me.

Do you think it not Surrealist? Why?

I didn't really like or understand that story. I did enjoy this sentence "The clothes revolved in the washing-machine at the speed with which peace agreements are passed!", though I don't quite understand it.

The word "nargileh" means "water pipe" or "hookah". That explains the reference to a hose, though I still don't really understand that sentence. There once was a horse named "Nargileh", but I never met him.

No, it's not Surrealist.

There are literally countless stories in literature with non-human protagonists. There is nothing specifically Surrealist about that.

Probably every literary story employs symbols and metaphors. There is nothing specifically Surrealist about that either.

The "A=B=C thing" in our discussion of "The Debutante" was my attempt to explain dream logic and transformation. This story has neither.

Merl wrote: "No, it's not Surrealist...."

Yeah, somebody has attached the tag "surreal" to the story. Fine. If that is what it feels like to them. I myself stick that tag onto things that feel "surreal" regardless of whether they are capital-S "Surreal". I don't worry about it. There are some people who intentionally create stories in a "Surreal" style or using "Surrealist-developed" techniques, and there are others who get a similar result without actually trying.

According to WP, Sam Moskowitz has said of Fitz-James O'Brien's 1858 short story "From Hand to Mouth" that it is "the single most striking example of surrealistic fiction to pre-date Alice in Wonderland". That got me very interested so I hunted all the dark corners of the internet and finally found it. Yes, indeed, it is a weird and wonderful story! And I will also call it lower-case "surreal".

I learned yesterday about one significance of the apostrophe in 'pataphysics. If you are intentionally doing it, it is 'pataphysics. But if you get the same results without trying, it is pataphysics. So Groucho Marx was a pataphysician, but Jarry was a 'pataphysician.

Ed wrote: "So Groucho Marx was a pataphysician, but Jarry was a 'pataphysician."

Ha ha, love it!

I don't know that O'Brien story. I will have to track it down.

I don't want to get into a long debate about definitions of Surrealism. The best way to get to understand it is to immerse yourself in it.

I already made some suggestions in the Literary Surrealism topic about Surrealists who are writing fiction today and worth reading.

There's also the (mostly) useful Listopia list, which contains many more suggestions across a much longer time span.

Other than that, my best advice is to get it straight from the horse's mouth: read Manifestoes of Surrealism.

Perhaps my previous attempts to explain some of the principles of Surrealism were not clear. But I can't think how else to explain them, so I won't keep piling on the agony.

I started a buddy-read thread for he Fitz-James O'Brien story "From Hand to Mouth" over here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I'm considering this story as being in the Weird genre and leaving it in the Buddy Read folder rather than bringing it into the Surreal folder. I still like the story and find it clever, whatever the genre.

What a romantic sock! I enjoyed it as a light read and have to admit, I have a soft spot for anthropomorphism as a literary device. Personally, I tend not to get too hung up on which sub-genre a piece belongs to.