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Title: Manifestoes of Surrealism by Andre Breton, Richard Seaver, Helen R. Lane ISBN: 0-472-06182-8 Publisher: University of Michigan Press Pub. Date: June, 1972 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: indispensable and of infinite importance to dreamers
Comment: It is hard to exaggerate the importance and the relevance of this book and the greatness of it's author, Andre Breton. Although a flawed and decidedly ambivalent man, Breton was the first out and out surrealist worthy of the name, seeking the spirit of magic and 'immanent transcendence' of a sort in the marvelous, a sense of mysticism and wonder in no way supernatural or otherworldly. Breton exhorts us to break the sterile and suffocating chains of rationalism and logic, and to realize the relativity of perspectives and perceptions of reality, thereby freeing both our intellect and the supreme weapon of the human mind, the imagination. The surrealist lifestyle is nothing if not a furious attempt at total liberation, and Breton knows that this cannot be said often enough. The mad, the imaginative, the dreamy and the alienated are true 'surrealists' and unwittingly live this defiant philosophy of rebellion through their resolute refusal to conform to society's norms and to replace their own thoughts with those of the uninspired, the average, the ordinary. The literary and poetic precursors Breton cites are absolutely perfect and in accordance with the ideology he is formulating:anyone who has deeply felt the power of imaginative art has felt the spirit of surrealism, and Breton was possessed by it. He once screamed furiously, "I AM SURREALISM!"--and far from seeing it as arrogant or pompous, I think he was right.
Rating: 5
Summary: Classic and Important Work
Comment: Breton's work is one of the seminal classics of twentieth century art and literature and deserves to be read, if for no other reason, purely for historical ones. However, the intersted historian will quickly be transported beyond the realm of antiquarian curiosity and into an embodied philosophy of life that profoundly critiques and challenges the status quo. In many ways, the critiques/alternatives offered by Breton and the surrealists are more desperately needed now in the beginning of the 21st century than they were in the beginning of the 20th.
As to the previous reviewers rather shallow critique, I can only say that Breton (still read in France as one of their major 20th c. poets) has written these as witty, playful, often beatiful sometimes even rambling texts. To call them terse is to either radically misuse the word or to lack an aesthetic sensibility, or perhaps both. As for the supposed rehashing of an "old, dilapitated art school that has nothing more to say", such an unsupported critique reveals far more about the reviewer than about Breton.
Enjoy this book.
Rating: 2
Summary: Go to a library....
Comment: Basically, if you can get past the terse text you will find a very, very out-dated system of thought. Andre Breton may have been revolutionary then, but now it is just a re-hash of an old, dilapitated art school that has nothing more to say.
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Title: Nadja by Andre Breton, Richard Howard ISBN: 0802150268 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: December, 1988 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The History of Surrealism by Maurice Nadeau, Richard Howard, Roger Shattuck ISBN: 0674403452 Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: April, 1989 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Mad Love by Andre Breton, Mary Ann Caws ISBN: 0803260725 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: October, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Maldoror and the Complete Works by Lautreamont, Alexis Lykiard, Comte De Lautreamont, Lautreamont Chants De Maldoror, Lautreamont Poesies, Conte de Lautreamont, Comte De Lautreamont ISBN: 187897212X Publisher: Exact Change Pub. Date: July, 1994 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: A Book of Surrealist Games by Alastair Brotchie, Mel Gooding ISBN: 1570620849 Publisher: Shambhala Pub. Date: 04 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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