Okay. Surrealism just grew to be all brands of awesome (yes, I’m aware of the inherent un-Englishness of this phrase, but I finished Editing on Friday, so I’m allowed a week’s grace). I mean, I loved it before and all - the trancelike features of surrealist literature can be absolutely beautiful. So I chose to do my final essay on Surrealism, specifically, the following question:

rn”It is not the fear of madness which will oblige us to leave the flag of the imagination unfurled” - Breton. To what extent can Surrealism be viewed as the aspiration towards a romanticised version of insanity?

rnSound evil? Yeah, perhaps a bit. But that said, I just spent ten minutes writing a wholly relevant 300 word paragraph for this essay. The specific subject of this paragraph?

The music video for Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.

Yep. Surrealism is all brands of awesome ^_^

If you’re interested in the paragraph (unedited, be warned!) click

rnSurrealism as a movement did not wither and die out as the twentieth century progressed, it has remained present in art and culture since its founding. A relatively modern example can be found, in all places, in a 1980s music video clip. The clip of the song ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, performed by welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, features a woman in what appears to be a trancelike state in a boys high school. Beginning in a room filled with crystal and candles, the protagonist moves down a hallway, encountering students sitting in front of peaks that loft doves at her through open doorways, students dancing in military uniform as they run up stairways, billowing red silk and her own reflection as she encounters a gigantic mirror. Afterwards, she enters an auditorium filled with first ninja-dances, break-dancers, and then a Catholic boys choir with glowing eyes that alternates between singing in hymnal fashion in their robes, and dancing around the protagonist in costumes better suited to an S&M video. As a projection of a dreamlike vision into a ‘real’ form, the video can indeed be counted as Surrealist in its motivation and its influences. Indeed, it has been claimed that the video is a homage to Fraz Kafka’s ‘The Trial’, which is itself classified as a Surrealist/Magical Realist work. ( Whether or not the video can be counted as insane is perhaps debatable, as it is relatively coherent as well as trancelike. Insanity might be counted to be present here in the form of the protagonist, much as the insanity present in ‘Nadjá’ is there through Nadjá’s own character and her actions. Both Nadjá and the protagonist of ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ are in a sense living in a dreamlike trance, and transcending all that surrounds them - which could be considered a form of insanity.

rnAbout a thousand words of 2500 to go. On the way!

rnAlcata’riel.

-Andiyar