A Book of Surrealist Games

Used this with my graduate writing students, they loved the absurdity and playfulness of the exercises.

This is a wonderful little book for spurring the imagination, perfect for theater and creative writing classes. Surrealism as a social and political movement may not be appealing (or practical, though I suppose that's somehow the point), but its philosophy vis-a-vis the arts is fresh and stimulating.The exercises in this book are terrific. A highlight is "Directions For Use," which asks writers to come up with ordered directions for an object or an idea as if it were a product available for purchase. I taught a 4th-grade writing lesson in which I wrote down a bunch of random, abstract things (love, frustration, Medieval England, twisting your ankle, etc.) on small pieces of paper and had the kids choose them out of a hat. The results were hilarious, and produced some of the students' proudest work.They also composed surreal questions and answers, in which students would write a question on one side of an index card, then have a partner answer it, unseen, on the other side. Results include:Do I have 261,000 cats?Penguins.Do you like knitting?Raccoons with rabies.You might even say the prompts in this book will work even for students who aren't "good" at writing, or who are intimidated by it. Everyone, regardless of skill level, composition ability, spelling, or whatever else can find a way to participate.(Caveat emptor: those sensitive to having God and religion mocked, or running into the occasional racial slur—this being a compilation of older documents—may be offended by some this book's content. For that reason, I'd recommend it as a teacher's reference only, and not a book for the class to read.)

Here's a slyly deceptive little volume, a perfect introduction to the Surrealist mindset. Why "deceptive," though? Because while all the games are fascinating & sometimes startling fun, the ideas they embody just might take hold of you ... which is all to the good, of course!If you want to know more about Surrealism, but just want to dip your toes into those mysterious waters at first, this is as good a starting place as any you'll find. The ideas of surprising juxtapositions, unexpected connections, and the sense of freedom & revelation through absurdity & chance, are all demonstrated here. And if you enjoy this first taste, then you'll almost certainly want more ...Recommended as both an unusual diversion & a window into another world!

The exercises in this book are designed to produce a different effect from rhetorical, every day communication and reality that you regularly experience to jog the conscious mind into comparing a new synthetic reality with everything you think you already know, and thus enable creative solutions that otherwise would never have happened in a kind of fortunate encounter.Often, though, the results are manifold and it's up to you and the problem you might be trying to solve to sort through these for what could best fit.The Surrealists used methods like this a hundred years ago because it often worked and produced the altered reality that enabled artists like Rene Magritte to make those strange and mysteriously beautiful paintings. I was surprised (and not surprised) to discover that I was already using some of these methods, but now I have many more. Open the book at random and read until that little light goes on!

For the price, the book is kind of small (smaller than a paperback book). Makes it difficult to read.

A lot of this material can be found online elsewhere. There used to be a wiki article with most of the techniques of the surrealists listed, hopefully it's still around. Even still I'm glad I got this book to have the information all together in one place for reference. The book itself is quite small, definitely meant to be carried with you and possibly read at parties or gatherings with friends.This book can be really useful for artists looking to enhance their creativity. It's essentially a compilation of techniques used by surrealists during the original movement in the 1920's and 30's. These techniques were often practiced together in groups (hence why the title refers to them as "games") but many can also be done by yourself. While I've definitely played some of these with friends before, I think this book is most useful to aspiring artists interested in surrealism and curious to learn the techniques of the original movement. In fact this book is probably extremely useful for any artist interested in exploring their creativity and willing to let go of conscious control over their creations, unafraid of how "weird" the end result might be. A lot of these are almost like meditation techniques for artists to explore their creativity and ignore that voice in their head that tells them they're doing it wrong.I've been practicing surrealist techniques for years and they've helped me boost my artistic creativity and explore sides of myself of which I was not previously aware, would recommend.

Bought this for an art teacher in the family—Picasso, Frida Kahlo, and Dali were famous Surrealist artists, so I figured he’d at least find this book to be an interesting read. He loves it, and even uses some of the games to get his classes started on a new project or lecture topic. Very entertaining for him and for the students, gets them engaged and active in their learning.

This is a very poor quality book both in terms of context and presentation. There is a complete lack of structure and everything looks like a mush of notes on games that can be characterized as abstract and pointless but not really sure if they can be considered surreal. If the context was presented in a more coherent way it might have been considered as a worthwhile purchase. I found it really disappointing.

Interessantes Buch mit Ideen und Spielen, die den Surrealisten geholfen haben, so besondere Kunst zu schaffen. Es ist das einzige Buch, von dem ich weiß, wo solche Methoden dargestellt und aufgelistet sind.

Ótimo livro para exercitar a criatividade.

Great insight into the Surrealist movement, and some fun stuff to do at parties too ;-)

非常に素晴らしい内容でした。サイズもコンパクトでいい感じです。

I just got it and it is a lot of fun. The games in this are numerous and the applications vary from party games to serious brainstorming techniques. For me as an artist (I am a cartoonist and illustrator that is far more in aligned with fine art and comics than modernism or post modernism so this isn't fan boy review) I find it really useful to play these games to lighten u a bit and tap into my really creative and passionate side. I suppose more importantly I laugh a lot when reading the examples or playing the games and I imagine you would to. It also has examples and some of them will most likely make you react in pleasantly surprised manner as you say "some of this stuff is really good, don't know what does it mean I like it but really..."Sorry if this is a crap review it is jut that I am sleepy having stayed u to 5 am playing these and I have not yet went to bed.