At Play In The Surrealist Café
07.23.2011 
Today the sun begins its annual passage through the Lion constellation. It’s time to get serious—about play.
“What if?” the Surrealists liked to ask.
What if all of you, or many of you, or the lion-hearted and the playful among you, were to participate with us in a Surrealist game?
Yes?
Of course you would! Here's how:
1.) On Saturday, July 30, precisely at 1 p.m. in your time zone, wherever you are in the world, walk into your favorite café;
2.) pick one stranger walking by, or in the room;
3.) write a paragraph (150 words maximum), or a poem (same word count), take a photo, or draw a picture, or even write a song, about him or her. Abstract, figurative, or realist, you choose.
And what if you sent your café composition to us by Tuesday, August 2, at 6 p.m. Paris time, and we published it in Paris Play the following Saturday, August 6?
What sort of collage would be created by all your various hearts and minds?
Forget whether you’re an artist, or a student, or a lawyer, or a mother, or all of the above. The point of this is the magic of collaboration and synchronicity. Please join us!
* * *
“Of the three metamorphoses of the spirit I tell you: how the spirit becomes a camel; and the camel, a lion; and the lion, finally, a child…. But say, my brothers, what can the child do that even the lion could not do? Why must the preying lion still become a child? The child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a self-propelled wheel, a first movement, a sacred "Yes." For the game of creation, my brothers, a sacred "Yes" is needed: the spirit now wills his own will, and he who had been lost to the world now conquers the world.”
—Thus Spake Zarathustra, part I, Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufmann.
Dali, Leo, Nietzsche, animals, cafes, collaboration, surrealists in Paris Life
Reader Comments (8)
Love this prompt! It's on the calendar....
I will do my best to be in a cafe on the 30th and see my muse. xo
Tara,
We look forward gleefully to your contribution!
Love,
Kaaren & Richard
Jennifer,
What if you took Clara with you on Saturday? (If a baby sitter isn't available.) Maybe she'd be your muse-of-the-day and wonder aloud about that man or woman or child passing by?
We hope you BOTH join us!
Love,
Kaaren & Richard
What a good idea. I'll do it.
Bruce
What fun! I'm in... (hmmmm, but which cafe? I may have to drive down to Venice - good excuse!)
xoxo,
d
Dear Bruce,
I do hope you do!
Love,
Kaaren & Richard
Hi Dawna,
Did you make it to Venice on Saturday? We'd love to see your contribution.
Love,
Kaaren & Richard