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To sort of pitch in some Surreal History;
What is considered the granddaddy of the surreal is a novella, MALDOROR, from a french writer by the pseudonym of Comte de Lautremont, known to his friends as Isidore Ducasse. This book was something that Andre Breton kept coming back to, and Dali did several pencil illustrations inspired by it.
The content has such things as different animals defecating on God's face, as He's drunk on the side of the road, Maldoror himself mating with the only thing as vicious as he, a gigantic female shark, and numerous other threats upon sanity and humanity.
From a contemporary comparison, it seems like Lovecraft crossed with W.S. Burroughs, although entirely with 18th century gilt around it.
(The last course for my bachelor's was a directed study turning this novel into a play, so it's been at the forefront.)
Someone else that may have actually inspired Ducasse (if I've got my timing right) is Baudilaire's THE FLOWERS OF EVIL.
As far as I can tell, these are the beginnig strands of the surrealism genome.
Just laying some background down, but if there's something I haven't covered, point it out to me. (It may help the play!) |
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