When’s the last time you tried to peer into your unconscious mind?
In my thesis on the surrealism movements in France and Latin America, I cited and explained a passage in which the “father of surrealism,” André Breton, concisely expressed the movement’s fundamental motivation:
“Je crois à la résolution future de ces deux états, en apparence si contradictoires, que sont la rêve et la réalité, en une sorte de réalité absolue, de surréalité, si l’on peut ainsi dire”(24)
[“I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak” (14)]. – André Breton, Manifeste du surréalisme [Manifesto of Surrealism]
The concept of vision being inevitably tainted by the present context – specifically, the mark of society – is precisely the limitation that the surrealists sought to overcome. Armed with poetry as their medium of choice, they struggled to discover the most potent formula for unleashing the unconscious, muted by the self and society, while striving for a surreality in which the conscious and unconscious minds possessed equal validity.*
I’m interested in loose translations of this concept in our own lives. Maybe you aren’t literally trying to give voice to your unconscious mind, but are there times when you’ve tried to see past your present context? Times when you’ve tried to shed the endless layers of memories and assumptions that shape your vision of today? These layers form who we are, but so does the process of peeling them away.
I’m striving to step out of my own context often, but it’s a constant process — I don’t think there’s an ending to be found. Sometimes we do need to be immersed in our own spaces, but it can be jarring — and important — to step out of those boxes. How does that translate in your life?
*If you can’t take the suspense and simply must see how the thesis ends, you can check it out by clicking here.
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This is a really excellent question. I think that dreams and reality clash every day. When I was in high school I wrote an essay about Sandra Cisneros’ short story One Holy Night (from the book Woman Hollering Creek), which I just re-read while cleaning out my stuff in my parents’ garage. I wrote that the character goes through a cycle of creating a fantasy, figuring out that this fantasy doesn’t really fit with her real experience and dealing with that disillusionment, and the inventing a new fantasy. In many ways I think this describes how I’ve lived my life, though I think my fantasies have become more realistic as I’ve learned more about how things really work in the world. Your blog looks great!
Hi Leslie – Interesting connection! I went through the process of going through all my old school stuff a few months ago… I love finding old things that I don’t remember writing. In a way, I feel like my fantasy and “reality” sort of mesh, rather than clash — sometimes it seems that they slowly fuse, while other times they seem to be a bit entangled but still distinct. I find that it also depends on where I am … both physically, and in mindset.
I’m a scifi flash fiction writer and I try to find the darkest spots available in my consciousness to bring into a lighter shade of pale. I blog just so I can write fantasy and science fiction, http://transferringfakiring.blogspot.com/ enjoyed your article.
hipriestess
castdcas@aol.com
thanks for coming by… very intrigued by the online fiction blogging!
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