Madder Love: Queer Men and the Precincts of Surrealism

by Peter Dubé (Editor)

Dreams, desire, darkened streets and the sudden miracles that appear there, the deep places of the mind. Two groups made these the heart of a radical project of queers and surrealism. Better than many others, queers understand the power of these dark areas. The rich, complicated culture we've created for ourselves is constantly ready to allow us to follow our dreams and fantasies, carried by the surging waves of sexuality into some pretty and magical places. It s just as clear that the surrealists were chasing similar adventures as far back as the Twenties and Thirties. Given the similarity of their motivations, why have the two so often been in violent opposition to each other? Madder Love is an anthology of cutting-edge writing that wants to look at that a little closer. It opens up the surreal possibilities of queer literature while simultaneously displacing the historic homophobia of Surrealism. From dream states to erotic obsessions, from the muttering of the unconscious to parallel worlds (and the weirder cracks in this one) Madder Love tackles why surrealism can be so queer, and why being queer can be so surreal. Contributions from Will Aitken, Stephen Beachy, Jeffery Beam, Stephen Boyer, Tom Cardamone, Sven Davisson, Peter Dube, Craig L. Gidney, Nicholas Alexander Hayes, Trebor Healey, Kevin Killian, Shaun Levin and Rob Stephenson help make the case.

Genres: Queer

140 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2008

Reviews

[Bill Hsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agree with M. Kitchell: Stephen Beachy's "Epidemic" and Peter Dube's "Echo" are terrific. Really enjoyed Kevin Killian's "Rome Adventure" as well, though that's a bit less obviously surrealist.

[Brandon]

I was looking forward to reading this book, but the comment on the back cover about "displacing the historic homophobia of Surrealism" really turned me off. Homophobia was never and has never been a part of the surrealist project.