Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Surreal Get Going

Out With the Old
"SURREALISM . . . AS BEAUTIFUL AS THE CHANCE ENCOUNTER OF A SEWING MACHINE AND AN UMBRELLA ON A DISSECTING TABLE!" Andre Breton, "Le Surrealisme un service do la revolution", Paris 1933.
Over the past couple of weeks I've intentionally moved from immersion within the social stream to observation from the shore. One of the most striking aspects I've noticed from my expatriate point of view is the seamless juxtaposition of unrelated ideas, topics and images that relentlessly transmit an around-the-clock surreal montage from the collective unconscious to our personal ADD-addled minds. I wonder what havoc this is playing beneath the surface with our mental models of self, others and the world.

4 comments:

sororNishi said...

Good question. Is this our stream-of-consciousness/uncosciousness becoming manifest and therefore enlightening, or is it subduing consciousness in a sea of dis/information and sending us into a mental dream.... (hmm...dream might not be the right word) ... daze, maybe.

Joey1058 said...

I would guess it would depend on how you defined "self" from the beginning. If you disconnect cold turkey from the internet, would you be able to recognize who you are physically from digitally?

Quen McLillian said...

Well, English might not be my native language, but your SL blog is the only one where I need a dictionary for.

Botgirl Questi said...

Soror: I also go back and forth between the idea that there may be some massive pattern recognition benefit from immersing within the outwardly cacophonous stream, or that it's just a jumble of shiny noise.

Joey: Thats' exactly what I'm going for . . . to gain enough separation to see what is changed through immersion in the Stream.

Trin: Yeah. Sorry. :) I usually try to be as readable as possible, but this particular topic is tough.