‘Exquisite Corpse’ in Class | II BA English
The Exciting Surrealist Weave in Class Today
#classActivity #psychicAutomatism
The Day Today | Daily Diary
This morning, woke up at 4.40 am, and then, from 5.30 am to 6.00 am, browsed through the News of the Day from around the World – right from the regional to the global - Distilled so Dutifully as the Dew and given to us in a 24-page platter of myriad hues!
There were four insightful articles in the Editorial page of today’s Times of India.
The first one is on why America is starting to look like Japan - that is bogged down under a pile of govt debt! [Indeed, Japan’s government debt is one of the highest in the world, and is expected to continue to rise]!
The second one is on – A luxury ship in Florida, busy rolling out the red carpet for Americans seeking ‘Trumpless sanctuary’. 😊
The usual Jug Suraiya column, where the legend is at his wittiest best on Trump’s America and beyond.
It seems, the Florida-based cruise ship company is offering a ‘Four-Year Skip Forward’ voyage – four years being the term of the US presidency – to those wanting to escape Trump’s America.
The luxury ship, which can accommodate 600 passengers, will visit 425 ports in 140 countries. An all-in package comes with a price tag of $155,999 per person for a double occupancy cabin, and $255,999 for single occupancy.
Those seeking a longer getaway from what they no longer see as the vaunted home of the brave, and the land of the free, are thinking of taking up residence in countries like Italy or Portugal.
The town of Sambuca in Sicily received “hundreds” of offers from prospective American buyers for derelict houses, and the mayor of Ollolai in Sardinia says that he got 35,000 applications for their scheme which offers abandoned properties for a single euro.
The third one, from Ms. Narayani Ganesh (daughter of the legendary MCC-ian Gemini Ganesan) is the icing on the cake!
It’s on the topic, “Atman Has No Gender. Let’s Dismantle Patriarchy”
Says Ms. Narayani –
Atman, soul – is it male, female or other variations of male and/or female? Is it he, she or they?
Atman is none of these; it is neutral. The higher Self, universal consciousness, is eternal, unchanging, infinite and all-inclusive. There is no question of assigning gender to these concepts.
Yet, in our daily lives, we nitpick over gender roles, gender rights and gender expectations in a warped, patriarchal world of our own creation, by distorting spiritual and scriptural concepts, misunderstanding gender roles. We have made male domination the social norm in almost all cultures, whether located in the east, west, north or south.
“I want a boy.” This is the demand of most would-be-fathers and their parents, entangled as they are in a web of their own making. Obstetrician Aruna Kalra in her recent work titled I Want a Boy, narrates her many experiences with patients.
When a baby girl is born, there is no celebration; only a pall of gloom that envelops the new mother’s relatives. Sweets are not distributed; they are withheld as they were meant to welcome a little prince. The female infant is no princess; she is viewed as a burden. The new mother is criticised and abused for not bearing a son.
The
fourth news item was a shocker! It says that, 77% of Professor Posts in
Karnataka Universities remain vacant!
Then, went to have my morning cuppa at my favourite bistro in town. There I was so happy to find an auto driver, so engrossed in reading his morning newspaper.
Every day I find him there at the same spot, at the same point of time, eagerly reading through the day’s newspaper, first thing in the morning.
Then, went to my regular Newspaper Mart and got 25 copies of the day’s newspaper.
By 7.50 am, reached College. There my namesake, the lovely rufous treepie bird was at his best, chirping away, all the way into the day! You may find his cute chirps on our YouTube Channel HERE.
Well, it was a rainy day today, with more rains predicted for tomorrow as well.
Students eagerly came to take their day’s newspaper from our Office – the Office of International Programmes.
Today, in my first hour with the II BA English class, as part of their paper on “Literature and Aesthetic Ideas” we had a discussion on the various art movements of the 20th century.
Students were then oriented on Surrealism as an art movement, that ‘aims to revolutionise human experience’. Artists of the movement, found beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional, thereby challenging imposed values and norms, coupled with a search for freedom.
An Exquisite Corpse is a type of progressive story game invented by Surrealist Andre Breton in the early twentieth century. It is a Surrealist strategy that encourages spontaneous writing and urges the individual to transcend conscious preparation, thereby ‘letting loose’ the unconscious!
Usually, an agreed upon rule is followed. For example, the AVN Adjective – Verb – Noun – pattern of sentence writing (that we followed today).
The first author writes a line using the given pattern of prose at the top of the page, then folds back the paper to ensure that no one else can read them. After folding the paper, the first author passes the paper to the next author.
The group continues the story by passing on the paper in like manner to everyone in the group. Once finished, one of the authors stands up and reads out loud the entire work thus created by this collaborative group effort.
That’s the uniqueness of the game as well. Since, each participant is unaware of what the others have written, producing a surprisingly weird yet often beautiful ‘weave’ in the end.
The Exquisite Corpse game facilitates collaborating with other authors, and helps in liberating oneself from the restraining constraints of order, decorum and structure.
Thereby, the game syncs with the First Surrealist Manifesto by Andre Breton, who exhorted writers to “Write quickly with no preconceived subject”.
He continues –
After you have settled yourself in a place as favorable as possible to the concentration of your mind upon itself, have writing materials brought to you.
Put yourself in as passive, or receptive, a state of mind as you can.
Forget about your genius, your talents, and the talents of everyone else.
Keep reminding yourself that literature is one of the saddest roads that leads to everything.
Write quickly, without any preconceived subject, fast enough so that you will not remember what you’re writing and be tempted to reread what you have written.
The first sentence will come spontaneously, so compelling is the truth that with every passing second there is a sentence unknown to our consciousness which is only crying out to be heard.
What a lovely philosophy to writing, ain’t it?
As such, Exquisite Corpse is an exemplification of this Surrealist Manifesto as well.
We followed the AVN Adjective – Verb – Noun – pattern of sentence writing. The first student – Vasanth wrote a line using the given pattern of prose at the top of the page, then folded back the paper to ensure that no one else can read them. After folding the paper, Vasanth passed the paper to the next student in his class, and so on.
Here goes their exciting Surrealist Output 😊
Cute puppies are barking.
A grey cloud crept across the once bright sky.
Beautiful cow runs.
A fair horse was feeding on the grass.
A beautiful cuckoo was singing.
A lovely song was sung.
A pretty girl was twirling.
A bright dress was hung in front of the shop.
A fiery spirit keeps running amock at night.
Gloomy skies hold memories.
The Beautiful Taj Mahal sits on the banks of the Yamuna.
The arrogant lady fought in the market.
His charming eyes are electrifying her.
A pretty girl is dancing on the stage.
Glory painted the wall in blue.
A gorgeous peacock was spotted in Madras Christian College.
A cute cat was adopted by us.
I saw a tree which was beautiful.
The cute cat is sleeping under the car.
The tired dog sleeps on the couch.
Although the word ‘surrealist’ was originally coined by the French avant-garde poet Apollinaire in the preface to a play performed in 1917, it was actually André Breton, who, in his Surrealist Manifesto (1924), gave this visual art movement a definitive statement.
Says Breton –
Surrealism is pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, 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.
Does it strike a chord in you, dear reader?
Well, Freud was one of the earliest proponents of the concept of ‘psychic automatism’ - the process of writing, painting, drawing, or speaking automatically without conscious thought!
However, Freud refers to these unconscious flows of thought as "free associations."
“It has been considered an unmistakable sign of free association... if the emerging ideas or images, appear to be connected... without inter-relationship of meaning,” says Freud in his Interpretation of Dreams.
Then, heard the good news from Dr. Gnanasekaran, Department of Botany, that he has been recognised as one of the Taxonomic Expert Network (TEN) Members (out of 21 key contributors around the globe) for Acanthaceae.
The Acanthaceae TEN page on World Flora Online is now live, https://about.worldfloraonline.org/tens/acanthaceae.
A young professor with great promise! We are so proud of you dear Sir.
Shreya, our vibrant kid from III BA had promised me long back that she’s got a book recommend for me. Today she showed the book to me. It’s by Rithvik Singh, and it’s titled, ‘I don’t love you anymore: moving on and living your best life’, which also happens to be a National Bestseller.
Just giving us all a lovely sneak peek into the book -
Here goes -
Promptly ordered myself a copy of the same. Thank you Shreya. Shreya, btw, is a published poet.
I was overjoyed to receive a courier from my mentor and guru Dr. Manalan. The parcel contained a lovely book.
It’s titled, The English Grammar with Linguistic Application: Redefined by Dr. Solomon Dharmapaul from Coimbatore. Thank you dear Sir for so thoughtfully sending me a copy of this book.
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Today my mentees Joice and Lal met me in my Office, and I gave them a few ideas on how to go about planning their days ahead. So happy that these mentees (including Pompi) from I BA English, turn up regularly to meet me and get guidance from me - their mentor.
I was so delighted to know that Joice, Pompi and Lal have started blogging consistently.
Then, we had our Think Tank Meet (Ideators’ Meet) at the newly inaugurated MCC-MRF Innovation Park’s Writers’ Nook today.
In spite of the rains, and the Christmas holidays ahead, I was so glad to see many students who had turned up for today’s edition of Think Tank.
The topic for today’s discussion was –
“Is AI a Threat or a Catalyst to Human Creativity and Originality”
Many of the participants contributed to the discussions on the topic.
Then, Joshua Mahima, III BA English, gave a very impactful review of his first published book of poetry to the gathering.
We discussed the prospective agenda for the upcoming Think Tank edition.
Reached home around 6.15 pm. Then, we had the Carols visitation. So happy to see for the first time, a young girl dressed up as Santa Claus – one bold step towards breaking the ‘patriarchal’ Santa. 😊 In the same vein, I also wish that, the concept of Santa in ‘Red & White’ soon becomes outmoded, and replaced with a corporate-free garb!
“The Reason, sir?” You seem to ask! 😊 For that, you may want to watch our Vlog HERE.
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