Manifesto of Surrealism

Our main interest here remains the ongoing polemics of Alchemy in the post-Symbolist, Surrealist world. The hermetic metaphor did not become quite so blatant as it had been in Symbolist art criticism until the publication of Breton s A Letter to Seers (1925) and his Second Manifesto of Surrealism... 

Breton, A. Manifestoes of Surrealism. Ann Arbor Univ. of Michigan Press, 1972. 

Even today, no one knows how this molecule of only three atoms causes its anesthetic effect, its hilarity or other more profound effects. For many users, there s no doubt it facilitates access to the "unconscious. Some feel that it also gives access to a state of recognition described by Andrd Breton in Manifestoes of Surrealism. ... 

Andre Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism, trans. Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane (Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press, 1969), p. 27. 

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