Surrealism

Surrealism, movement in visual art and literature, flourishing in Europe between World Wars I and II. Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which before World War I produced works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason; but Surrealism’s emphasis was not on negation but on positive expression. The movement represented a reaction against what its members saw as the destruction wrought by the “rationalism” that had guided European culture and politics in the past and that had culminated in the horrors of World War I. 

According to the major spokesman of the movement, the poet and critic André Breton, who published The Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in “an absolute reality, a surreality.” Drawing heavily on theories adapted from Sigmund Freud, Breton saw the unconscious as the wellspring of the imagination. He defined genius in terms of accessibility to this normally untapped realm, which, he believed, could be attained by poets and painters alike.

Characteristics
In the poetry of Breton, Paul Éluard, Pierre Reverdy, and others, Surrealism manifested itself in a juxtaposition of words that was startling because it was determined not by logical but by psychological—that is, unconscious—thought processes. Surrealism’s major achievements, however, were in the field of painting. Surrealist painting was influenced not only by Dadaism but also by the fantastic and grotesque images of such earlier painters as Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya and of closer contemporaries such as Odilon Redon, Giorgio de Chirico, and Marc Chagall. 

The practice of Surrealist art strongly emphasized methodological research and experimentation, stressing the work of art as a means for prompting personal psychic investigation and revelation. Breton, however, demanded firm doctrinal allegiance. Thus, although the Surrealists held a group show in Paris in 1925, the history of the movement is full of expulsions, defections, and personal attacks.

CHECK OUT TOMORROW'S POSTINGS FOR 

5 SURREALISTIC PAINTERS AND THEIR ARTWORK

Japans Aircraft Carrier

When Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro returned from his trip to Japan, he fired off a tweet that touted his tour of that country's "Aircraft Carrier Izumo." It was a short comment that recognized an important new naval reality for the longtime ally.

Japan's pacifist constitution meant its naval forces have relied on ships carrying helicopters for self-defense, not fighter jets — and it avoided using the term aircraft carrier — since the end of World War II.

Del Toro, whether intentionally or not, gave a public US acknowledgment of a historic shift by Tokyo toward its past as a carrier power. Late in 2018, the Japanese announced plans to refit two helicopter carriers including the Izumo for U.S.-built F-35B Lightning II fighters, part of an increasingly urgent effort to counter growing Chinese sea power.

A Navy spokesman said, "The tweet does not signal a change in how the US officially recognizes the ship."

Japan has a self-defense force, what most outsiders would recognize as a military, but its constitution proclaims that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained," meaning that it has historically avoided any military action or buildup considered offensive.

JS Izumo approaches the harbor at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan, September 30, 2021. US Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. Darien Wright

"Governments have argued that Japan has the right to maintain capabilities and use the 'minimum necessary level of self-defense,'" explained Jeffrey Hornung, a scholar on Japan at Rand Corp. "Historically, anything that exceeds that is considered war potential, and therefore it violates the Constitution."   READ MORE...

DE-unification of America

The last time the USA (America) was TOTALLY UNIFIED was WWII which ended in 1945 or 75 years ago...

Does that shock you?

It should...  because the concept of AMERICA is Unification hence The United States of America...  and, it is important to refer to USA as the USA instead of America is the simple historical fact that there are THREE AMERICAS:

• North America (which includes the USA and Canada)
• Central America
• South America

SO...   when someone refers to America, it could actually refer to any one of those 3 entities...

BUT...  back to unification...

Why are we no longer UNIFIED?

Because of our FREEDOMS...

FREEDOM allows us and actually enables us to be NOT UNIFIED because of our ability and freedom to believe differently than everyone else.

AS A MATTER OF FACT, our freedom has the ability for us to decide that we no longer need our freedoms...

THINK ABOUT THAT for a minute or two.

FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY gives the general public to decide that we no longer need to be a Democracy or need all/any of our freedoms.

How does a country maintain UNITY with this kind of freedom?