Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with surrealism

What's some quality surrealistic humor from Japan?

jtron — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:32:30 -0800

Recommendations for surreal Japanese humor? Although I've been hep to the anime since Battle of the Planets in '78, there're no anime/manga fans in my peer group to get recommendations from. I dig the brooding minimalism of Gatchaman, and the beauty of Miyazaki, but what's really been floating my boat is the surreal humor of Azumanga Daioh and Cromartie High School (and Junko Mizuno's manga, but not much has made it over here). Is there anything else out there I should check out that's sorta the same flavor*?

Note: this doesn't mean I'm looking for yonkoma, or high school stories, necessarily - the weird laughs are what I'm looking for. Anime or manga OK, and I'm OK with recommendations of stuff that's not commercially available in the US so long as there's a fansub out there somewhere.

*I also like Kure Kure Takora, movies like Funky Forest, Karaoke Terror, and Wild Zero, and DDT Pro Wrestling, if that gives you more of an idea of my wavelength

Historical art fiction

One Second Before Awakening — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:33:47 -0800

I'd really like to find some good historical fiction about modern art movements, scenes, or artists. I'm a huge fan of modern art from around 1900 to 1970. I'm especially fascinated by dadaism, Futurism, and most of all, Surrealism. I very much enjoyed the scenes with Dalí and the Surrealists in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, and Robert Irwin's The Exquisite Corpse, with a surrealist artist as a protagonist, blew me away.

I'm very much interested in finding some quality historical fiction that either centers on this period in modern art or has significant scenes relating to it. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Brazilian absurdist literature identification

destro — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:54:12 -0800

Please help identify this author/book; Brazilian absurdist/surrealist, stream of consciousness fiction about a part-man/part something else that travels around and continually says a phrase like "holy f-ing s-".

Ohhh. Made in Britain! [/moss]

jtron — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:40:11 -0800

Recommend me some British comedy, please. I never cared much for sitcoms until I got a solid hookup for British TV.

Now I'm desperately addicted to shows like the Mighty Boosh, Father Ted, Black Books, the IT Crowd, Brass Eye, the Day Today, Big Train, Spaced, Is It Bill Bailey, and Look Around You.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what I should look for next. Little Britain is next in the Queue, and I've got the League of Gentlemen on the way, but what should I be watching that will make my girlfriend stop weeping about there being no more Green Wing to watch?

Extra credit if it's something I've never heard about, and please don't recommend Bo Selecta as I've tried watching it and don't care for it at all.

surrealists in asia

arcadia — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:07:09 -0800

Which European artists and writers visited Asia between 1900 and 1950? I am researching the influence of Buddhism on Surrealism. I'm looking for information about who actually visited Asia (India, China, Japan, or other parts). If you know anything about this, especially if you can direct me to your source, it would be much appreciated. Particularly interested in Georges Bataille, Artaud, Breton, Tzara, Eluard, Ernst, Michaux, etc. I have info. on the travels of many of these people but am always looking for more.
Thanks!

Alexandra David-Neel and Georges Bataille

arcadia — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:03:58 -0800

Did Alexandra David-Neel ever meet Georges Bataille? I'm researching connections between Tibetan Buddhism and Surrealism. If you can give me evidence that Alexandra David-Neel and Georges Bataille met one another, I will be forever grateful. If you can lead me to actual evidence, transcripts, whatever, I will explode with gratitude. Also interested in contact between David-Neel and any other Parisian avant-gardists, especially Surrealists.
Thanks!

Buddhism and Surrealism in Paris in the 1920s

arcadia — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:41:23 -0800

How do I found out about books, museums, exhibitions, and artifacts relating to Buddhism in Paris in the 1920s? I'm writing a dissertation that involves Buddhism and Surrealism. I am trying to find archives, libraries, books, museums, etc., that have information about the influence of Buddhism and Tibet in Paris between 1900 and 1945, most importantly during the peak of Surrealism, about 1924 to 1939. Who can I contact in Paris who might be able to help me? What public institutions would have archives that would show what exhibitions happened in these years and what artifacts were in them?

Looking for "The Golden Boat"...

pazoozoo — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:00:33 -0800

Does anyone know if a DVD copy of the 1996 movie "The Golden Boat" by Raoul Ruiz was ever made and if so, where it can be purchased?

Did I dream this movie, or...?

kittens for breakfast — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 12:10:15 -0800

Did I dream this movie, or...? Surreal neo-noir probably from the '70s, featuring scary Batman-style villains and brutal murder -- anybody know it? This movie has haunted me for twenty-plus years, provided it really exists at all. I blogged about it last year -- to an audience comprised almost entirely of sf/fantasy/horror geeks -- and not one of them could place it. And they've had eight months to do it. I don't think it's gonna happen. I begin to lose hope. Anyway, of the film in question I wrote the following, way back in December '06 (take a deep breath...this is long):

First of all, I figure it was made in the '70s; it was on TV, and this was probably '82 or '83. It may have been in black and white (but all my memories of movies I saw then are in black and white, because we didn't have a color set). The movie is kind of a noir pastiche thing, I'm guessing set in the '30s. The main guy is this cop or PI or something. It's all very hardboiled, and while it's over the top, it isn't (or anyway, it didn't seem to be) campy. Far from it. Somehow this ridiculous thing was played straight, and at least to a ten-year-old, it worked. Basically, this guy has got enemies -- like Batman enemies. There's a montage that shows you the enemies (all gangster types) and one of them is, I kid you not, a dude with a long and pointy schnozz that he makes more pointy by sticking it in a pencil sharpener and turning the crank. I don't remember the other bad guys, but I'm sure they were all similarly fucked up. In any event, dude faces off against these guys. And they tommygun him. Like, right in the street. Graphically. Guy falls down dead. Super fucked up guys walk away laughing. Night falls, guy continues to be dead. Lying in a pool of cold blood. Then it rains. Something happens -- I don't remember what exactly, but he's found by good guys, who declare him dead. REAL dead. I think...I'm not sure, and I may be mixing this up with one of the bad guys' bizarre ass backstories...that they have to give him a full blood transfusion, and maybe do plastic surgery to his face? I dunno. That's where it starts to get kinda murky, and about where I had to leave -- NEVER TO SEE THE FILM AGAIN!

Sooooooooo...anybody?

Surrealist Scrapbooking

evilcupcakes — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:56:42 -0800

I am making a scrapbook for a friend of mine. The challenge? Neither one of us is the type to groove on the tacky "Precious Moments" aesthetic of most scrapbooking materials available. What's an aging goth to do? I am looking for craft and scrapbooking materials and ideas that are more Dark Victorian, Weimer-esque, Art Nouveau, and antique-y than "cute n' country". My idea is to make something that looks like an antique Dadaist/Surrealist art book out of the photos I have. I have scoured the internet, local second hand stores and craft shops for months, with little success. My stock of "found" items is limited at the moment and mostly too contemporary for my needs. Any suggestions for where I can get cool materials online or in the Seattle area would be appreciated. Thanks!

Similar artists to Mark Ryden?

rocket88 — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 07:37:48 -0800

I discovered Mark Ryden, and one or two similar artists in this AskMe thread, and I really like the style. Who are some other artists in this genre (pop surrealism?) that I might also enjoy?

Where's it all going down?

borkingchikapa — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 09:44:54 -0800

I'm reading a book that has a lot of references to Paris between the wars and culture that flowed underneath it. The surrealist movement, people like Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, the brothels and debauchery, etc. Similar situations have happened everywhere - the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat Generation and countless others. I'm sure you can think of more. My question is this: Where is this stuff happening now? Where, in fifty years, will we look look back on and say "Man, I sure I wish I had been in x in the '00s". I suppose this involves quite a bit of speculation, but what are your opinions?

Japanese Noh documentary on PBS?

felix — Thu, 26 May 2005 12:24:05 -0800

In an interview in The Comics Journal, Dirk Deppy is talking about surrealism with Flaming Carrot author Bob Burden, when suddenly a remembered moment from a public television Japanese Noh Drama documentary leaps off the page... "DEPPEY: I think if I had to pinpoint the most surreal thing I've ever seen it would have to be a PBS special I saw as an early teenager on Japanese Noh theater, which is sort of the grotesque version of Kabuki. The special opened up with what seemed like this eight-minute shot of a woman who was bare from the middle of her breasts on up. It was a very tight angle, close-up shot of that, with her head tilted way back, looking over her shoulder at the camera with this utterly maniacal gleam in her eyes -- like she was about to devour a kitten or something. After about a minute of this, a little patch of saliva began slowly sliding out of the side of her mouth, slowly running down her chin, slowly running down her neck. Everything else was absolutely still..."

OK, where the heck is this from, and does anyone have either a source for the documentary, or the visual which it documents, or the play which contains the visual? Because I remember this too, and it's driving me mad. (small patch of saliva drools down chin)

Identify this Artist

ttrendel — Sun, 15 Aug 2004 09:12:30 -0800

I'm looking for info on a print I recently bought at a yard sale. The print is of a surrealist ink drawing. The main subject of the drawing is the Palace Bathhouse in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It is signed as "Kahn '77". Does anyone have any idea who the artist is or has anyone seen this drawing before? It almost looks like an illustration from a book.