Thursday 30 April 2009

Friday 17 April 2009

to be continued

Like many others, I got to surrealism thanks to the work of Franklin Rosemont. I first read André Breton in Franklin's invaluable anthology, What is Surrealism?  His introduction to Breton burned with the vividness of surrealism as a living movement. I didn't always agree with Franklin, but that's a mark of a living movement. That so many of us are part of that movement, arguing and collaborating and disputing and creating, is a testimony to his contribution over the years. 

'... surrealism is not an aesthetic doctrine, nor a philosophical system, nor a mere literary or artistic school. It is an unrelenting revolt against a civilisation that reduces all human aspirations to market values, religious impostures, universal boredom and misery'.
Franklin Rosemont (1943-2009)

Sunday 5 April 2009

A birthday greeting from London

Do not be alarmed. I will instruct half a dozen servants to keep the venerated remains of your body and to protect them from the ravenous hunger of the dogs. No doubt the body has remained stuck to the wall like a ripe pear and has not fallen to the earth; but a dog can jump extremely high, if one is not careful ...