this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2024
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Surrealism is always antifascist. Cruelty and absurdity are two sides of the same coin, or perhaps the same side of two coins.
Your metaphor is not working. Cruelty and absurdity are Ying and Yang?
It's a surrealist metaphor
I'm going to use this in the future.
"What? Your calculations don't make any sense."
"It's surrealist math."
"..."
"Pfft I knew you wouldn't get it"
When you write a declaration of peace with the blood of your enemies.
"Sir this is a rescue for puppies, why did you make a flag out of their pelt?"
There's absurdity in cruelty... there's cruelty in absurdity... kinda works... like a dark yin yang.
You don't find it so? Maybe I read too much Vonnegut as a kid, it seems clear to me.
You say surrealism is anti-fascist. Then you say cruelty and absurdity are the same thing (two sides of the same coin). Then you try to clarify by saying they are two separate things but have a commonality (two coins same side). I think ying/yang is more fitting, and quicker to the punch, in that there can be a little cruelty in absurdity and vise versa, which you were dancing around with your ill fitting metaphor. So, yes, I don't think so. Clarity is in the eye of the beer holder.
The expression "two sides of the same coin" does not mean two things that are the same. It means two things with the same base and opposite expressions.
As such, the same side of two different coins indicates two different bases with the same expression
The metaphor works better and acknowledges more nuance than the Yin Yang.
I actually think I see a little of what you're getting at, but maybe it's just my willful interpretation.
The absurd is the gap between what we expect to happen, and what actually happens. We expect to go to work today, it'll be mundane and boring, and then an asteroid hits the road and we can't go in today. How absurd.
Cruelty is often a tool people use to gain control. The absurd by definition is outside of our control. I can see how these could be related in some way
Absurdity is like seeing your cat go "mrwn! mrwn!" at the passing plane, then suddenly flying and catching it. Then cruelty is what your cat does with the passengers.
I dunno. Doublethink is pretty surreal, but it supports fascism. If you're just talking about art, I think you could make the case that the Italian Futurists were at least Surrealist-adjacent, and some of them supported fascism.
I'd argue semantically that surrealism is that which lies under reality whereas Doublethink (and other Orwellian language) lies over reality
You may be thinking of 'Pataphysics:
'pataphysics is an extension of metaphysics - both of which extend the concept of "that which is beyond"
although connected - surrealism from the French for "under reality" is more about incongruity with what is real, but meta- and 'pata-physics are looking at what is beyond the physical.
Dream-like things like a star with a face are surreal, something like an actual sentient star would be 'pataphysical
is surrealism is antifascist than what are the other forms of art?