Type surreal into the search field of any major newspaper’s web site and you’ll likely come across results similar to these from The Seattle Times:
Dr. Samuel Weinstein said he had his blood drawn, ate a Pop-Tart, returned to the operating table and watched as his blood helped the boy survive the complex surgery. “It was a little bit surreal,” Weinstein said. -Sunday, May 28, 2006
“It’s kind of surreal,” said the film’s director Tristan Lunde, 15, of Seattle. “I didn’t really expect to win, but I’m really happy about it.” -Friday, May 26, 2006
While that day did much to expose the surreal vision of modern Everest…. -Friday, May 26, 2006
Durran Alexander calls the last year in his brother’s life “surreal.” -Sunday, May 14, 2006
In the 1920’s, French poet André Breton defined the term surrealism:
Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, or in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.
Surreal is not a synonym for unusual, surprising, bizarre, or hectic, which are more appropriate words for each of the four scenarios described above. It doesn’t mean “unreal.” It doesn’t mean “horrific.” It certainly doesn’t mean “a bunch of washed up non-celebrities on a TV reality show.” Surreal describes the manifestation of the subconscious in an attempt to create new associations that expose psychological truth.
Read “What is Surrealism?” by Breton for more information, and unless you can understand it, stop using the word.
Also, it’s been so long since I posted an old graduate school essay so read my “The Surrealists’ Cinematic Contemplation and Aesthetic,” in which I try to explain why the Surrealists never made a lot of movies.
Finally, here’s the most famous film made by a Surrealist, Un chien andalou. I think you’ll see that eating a Pop-Tart while giving blood doesn’t exactly match up. Now, maybe if you gave blood from your eye….
