Genres

Surrealist

Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur.

Lists

Absurd Incredulity. Inconceivable Calamity by Mark Comstock

Books Published by Harlin Quist

64 books — 6 voters

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Surrealist & Experimental Book List

29 books — 36 voters

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Epitaph of a Small Winner by Machado DeAssis

Avon, Bard, Discus Paperback Books Only. International Fiction, Modern Classics, Magical Realist, Latin, and more...

101 books — 6 voters

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick

The (never official) World/Inferno Friendship Society book list

45 books — 3 voters

Cutesy but Creepy Covers

73 books — 5 voters

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Best Surrealist Literature

267 books — 231 voters

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Readers’ Most Anticipated New Books for April

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Quotes Tagged “Surrealist”

“ The only thing we know for sure is that we don't know anything for sure. ...more ”
― ~MLMorning

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“ A dandy," wrote Charles Baudelaire, "must be looking in his mirror at all times, waking and sleeping." Dali could easily have become the living proof of Baudelaire's dictum. But the literal mirror was not enough for him. Dali needed mirrors of many kinds: his pictures, his admirers, newspapers and magazines and television. And even that still left him unsatisfied. So one Christmas he took a walk in the streets of New York carrying a bell. He would ring it whenever he felt people were not paying A dandy," wrote Charles Baudelaire, "must be looking in his mirror at all times, waking and sleeping." Dali could easily have become the living proof of Baudelaire's dictum. But the literal mirror was not enough for him. Dali needed mirrors of many kinds: his pictures, his admirers, newspapers and magazines and television. And even that still left him unsatisfied. So one Christmas he took a walk in the streets of New York carrying a bell. He would ring it whenever he felt people were not paying enough attention to him. "The thought of not being recognised was unbearable." True to himself to the bitter end, he delighted in following Catalonian television's bulletins on his state of health during his last days alive (in Quiron hospital in Barcelona); he wanted to hear people talking about him, and he also wanted to know whether his health would revive or whether he would be dying soon. At the age of six he wanted to be a female cook - he specified the gender. At seven he wanted to be Napoleon. "Ever since, my ambition has been continually on the increase, as has my megalomania: now all I want to be is Salvador Dali. But the closer I get to my goal, the further Salvador Dali drifts away from me." He painted his first picture in 1910 at the age of six. At ten he discovered Impressionist art, and at fourteen the Pompiers (a 19th century group of academic genre painters, among them Meissonier, Detaille and Moreau). By 1927 he was Dali, and the poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, a friend of his youth, wrote an 'Ode to Salvador Dali.' Years later Dali claimed that Lorca had been very attracted to him and had tride to sodomize him, but had not quite managed it. Dali's thirst for scandal was unquenchable. His parents had named him Salvador "because he was the chosen one who was come to save painting from the" deadly menace of abstract art, academic Surrealism, Dadaism, and any kind of anarchic "ism" whatsoever." If he had lived during the Renaissance, his genius would have been recognized at an earlier stage and indeed considered normal. But in the twentieth century, which Dali damned as stupid, he was thought provocative, a thorn in the flesh. To this day there are many who misunderstand the provocativeness and label him insane. But Dali repeatedly declared: "... the sole difference between me and a madman is the fact that I am not mad!" Dali also said: "The difference between the Surrealists and me is that I am a Surrealist" - which is perfectly true. And he also claimed: "I have the universal curiosity of Renaissance men, and my mental jaws are constantly at work. ...more ”
― Gilles Néret, Salvador Dalí: 1904-1989

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