Smoking opium. ... Opium’s effect on the body is one of a dreamlike state where the conscious becomes frighteningly aware of the unconscious, or subconscious, if you will. ... Almost all of the major Surrealists of the time were devout opium addicts. ... In order to obtain a sense of the unconscious while awake they looked to the drug opium to help them. ...
It is best, then, to look at the major influence of Surrealism. ... It should be mentioned here that Sigmund Freud was a very heavy user of both opium and cocaine (www. ... When Andre Breton met Freud in the early 1900’s he found in Freud a common bond in the search for truth in the subconscious and began his work, which would eventually become Surrealism. ...
Jean Cocteau truly mastered the form of Surrealism with three of his many plays, poems, and films. ... Later in his life he gave us a startling look into the life of a drug addict when he chronicled his rehabilitation in his book, “Opium”. ... It is clear by his entries that opium was the driving force behind
his Surrealism. ... Of course opium remains unique and the euphoria it induces is superior to that of health. ... It is a pity that instead of perfecting curative techniques, medicine does not try to render opium harmless. ... ” (Stangos 130) Miro was not really a product of Surrealism but was rather a necessity for its beginning. Surrealism needed his work in order to define itself as an art movement. ... com)
The scenic elements contained all of the tenets of Surrealism, including the free-association form that was absolutely necessary to the subconscious telling the truth. ... The result of this form of scenography was a look that could explain the effects of opium to the layperson of the theatre going audience at the time. ... It was this style of art, along with the playwrights, and assumedly, along with opium, which made the surrealistic movement what it was.
Antonin Artaud once wrote,
“Surrealism is above all a state of mind, it does not advocate formulas. ... Opium put them in that state of mind and created a comfortably numb environment for all of them to be creative in. ... Timothy Leary’s study of LSD, opium, and other psychotropic drugs was a major part of Stanford University’s psychology department for years until the conservative view of narcotics took over most university governing boards in the late 1970’s. ... (Herer, pamphlet) William Burrough’s surrealistic novel, Naked Lunch, was a controversial look at a man’s search for truth through the use of opium and heroin. ... There is little doubt, though, that the movement, like its original counterpart would not have existed without the use of opium or the other psychotropic drugs. ... Surrealism was an escapist way of dealing with the strict confines put on the world of art and theatre by Realism.
Comments on Opium and Surrealism
User avocado87 rated it 3 stars and said,
doesn't talk about opium as much as the title would suggest
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