There\’s a quote by a titan of her time, author, activist, and theorist Suzanne Césaire in-which she discusses surrealism. It\’s a concept i\’ve battered subconsciously against for years. Yet, i\’ve never found an interpretation that i\’ve inserted into my own work, life, and practice. Whether too weighty and filled with the incomprehensible, in a bid to mask their uselessness, or too simple to discuss a concept that dredges the human experience itself.
That is until a few months ago. In a class, with a professor whose always pushed me to do more, speak more, and above all else read more. And during a cold and frigid winter past, I lived like a hermit, and received a revelation fit for a fanatic.
And so, for all that setup, I\’ll leave you with the quote, and the reason why this blog is titled the way it is.
\”Surrealism, she argued, was not an ideology as such but a state of mind, a \”permanent readiness for the Marvelous.\” In a 1941 issue of Tropiques, she imagined new possibilities in terms that were foreign to Marxists; she called on readers to embrace \”the domain of the strange, the marvelous and the fantastic, a domain scorned by people of certain inclinations. Here is the freed image, dazzling and beautiful, with a beauty that could not be more unexpected and overwhelming.\”
\”Thus, far from contradicting, diluting, or diverting our revolutionary attitude toward life, surrealism strengthens it. It nourishes an impatient strength within us, endlessly reinforcing the massive army of refusals. And I am also thinking of tomorrow.\”
Yet, why into the sublime? Well the way Césaire describes surrealism is how I personify the term, sublime. A moment \”dazzling and beautiful, with a beauty that could not be more unexpected and overwhelming.\”
And so, this blog acts a means of exploring moments of sublime. Whether, artistic, or simply experienced I hope to unravel my human experience through the only art i\’ve got, writing. And maybe you\’ll find something similar.