A Second Glance at Magic:
While rereading this story through the lens of my topic, surrealism, I began to wonder whether or not the violence in this story could be associated with the surreal.
“…what confusion there would be sometimes with a girl running raving downstairs, and the madam pulling her back by the hair and smashing a bottle on her forehead.”
“madam took hold of her shoulder and began to lift her knee and kick this girl most terribly in the stomach, and even in her most secret place…and then she beat her in the face with a bottle…when she got up again there was blood everywhere she had sat.”
A quote from a commentary on surrealism, sex and violence Surrealism: Revolution by Night, Art Gallery of NSW, July 30 to September 19, Reviewed by Zanny Begg) : “But if the reality the Surrealists recoiled from was violent and irrational the subconscious world they explored was no less disturbing. In running away from the horrors of World War I the Surrealists discovered their own fantasy world was also filled with prejudice and disgust. In a violent world our dreams are necessarily polluted by violence.”
These two quotations example the violence I claim to be of a surreal nature; the brutality is shocking, dangerous, unusual—to say the least—and works to highlight the disturbing reality of Ninette’s situation. Again, the surreal violence is a way to draw the reader closer to the real.
The revolutionary idea of the Surrealist movement is supported by this violence. Ninnette acknowledged her dangerous situation, her captivity, and fled in pursuit of her freedom, her sexuality, her existence. Porter, however, may be criticizing the pursuit of surrealist freedom, because Ninette returns through magic, a type of surrealism. The very means of her revolution and self realization drew her back to live under the tyranny of prostitution. Porter seems to say that surrealist movements both free us and confine us. They enlighten us then bring us back to a harsher reality.
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1 comment:
I think this post is very interesting. However, I was wondering that if in class or in post, could you define surrealism in the way you are working with it? I was just thinking, a lot of people may have different definitions of it, and also I know that the surrealist movement in the 20s- is different from the surrealism in Britain in the 60s. Mainly, I think I need a refresher!
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