Game playing was a primary creative method of the surealists, whose methods shocked their peers in the early part of this century and whose work is still held in awe today. This work provides language games, alternative card games, "Dream Lotto", automatic techniques for making poems, stories, collages and photo-montages to re-create the surrealist creativity. The games may also be used to delve into the collective unconscious in much the same ways as the original surrealists did at the start of the movement.

Reviews

"Of great value to teachers, comedy writers and other problem-solvers, this is an illustrated compendium of ways to be inventive, humorous or absurd through irresponsibility or 'planned incongruity.'"-- "Ballast Quarterly Review "



"This extraordinary collection of word games, visual tricks and intellectual assaults on the conventional is a treasure trove of the artistic and socio-linguistic conundrums which the Surrealists--Andre Breton, Tristan Tzara and their associates--cultivated from the 1920s onwards. Its compiler, Alastair Brotchie, is to be congratulated for salvaging such fascinating if recondite material from the various obscure journals in which it first appeared."-- "The Spectator "