It was my misfortune to be woken today by a BBC radio broadcast where no less than two segments in a row featured interviews with people whose experience, attending a large rock concert and gaining celebrity at breakneck speed, were "so surreal". Basically it is serving as a somewhat upmarket replacement for "unreal" when it is so much more.
Surrealism is based on stressing the subconscious or non-rational significance of imagery arrived at automatically. It challenges through startling juxtapositions and exists at the nexus of reconciliation between representation and perception . Something is surreal when it reveals something that is disturbingly true but defies our habitual thinking and logic. This is generally something that we seek in our lives as we look to expand our ideas and perspectives in interesting ways. Poor surreal - caged like a wild tiger. Let's hope we can free it before it gets bored in the zoo. Some are already getting started.
"When it comes to art and literature, surreal more accurately means "super real". We'll examine how the wildly original Surrealist movement was -- and, for some, still is -- more than a school of art and literature. It's a way of living a life that embraces childishness, the importance of dreams, and the idea that everything happens for a reason."
Labels: culture
