project rednoW - Thoughts on Absurdity

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Thoughts on Absurdity

The Absurd General
Written by Gabe Knipp
Monday, 13 August 2007
Description The Absurd. Some of us love it and some of us don't get it. Yet, why are we drawn to it? What is it that makes us want to watch or participate in the bizarre or absurd? The Surrealists would have (or would have had) us believe that the unconscious wakes up as we enter into the absurd. That is, think about your dream iife. Or think about those Rozerem sleeping pill commercials: Abe Lincoln and a talking beaver hanging out together. The commercials work because we instantly recognize a talking beaver and Abe Lincoln as something that would happen in a dream. The unconscious that provides our dream life is absurd. Surrealists believed that we could achieve both personal and social liberation through this contact with the absurd. To some extent, they were right. � Now, the absurd won't start a revolution; people tuning into their unconscious will not save humankind. But, it does help us wake up. Good absurdity jolts us out of everyday reality. When we see men with shaved heads who have painted their bodies blue doing funny things it makes us laugh. It's also a protest, of sorts. It says, "I don't have to do life the way I've seen it done; I can do it a new way." It is a liberation, a removing of the social barriers. When Kanye West does a music video with hicks from North Carolina he's funny, but he's making a statement as well: rap music doesn't have to look tough and cool. It's absurd, but it helps us realize the conventions that we normally put on rap music. It breaks free. The allure that absurdity gives wakes us from everyday. Interacting with our unconscious is one way to do this, through dreams. They make us realize something, or at least scratch our heads and wonder. And seeing it around us entertains us, but also revives us. It helps us realize there is more to life than work and school, bills and laundry. We can break the conventions. Next time you watch or listen to something absurd, don't just laugh. Realize what it's telling you. Bookmark or Share This Article Trackback(0) TrackBack URI for this entry Comments (2) Subscribe to this comment's feed Absurd is Good, Yes! written by USpace , December 18, 2007 Good bit on the meaning and importance of the absurd. .. absurd thought - God of the Universe says outlaw most bloggers license all the rest monitor their writing .. ... written by Thom , August 15, 2007 Thanks for the connection. I had originally thought that was a ground hog in the commercial and not a beaver. The connection I made was that the fella hadn't sleep for a couple weeks considering Ground Hog Day is Feb. 2 and Abraham Lincoln's birthday is Feb 12 (President's Day could be used as well, it is 3rd Mon in Feb). My assumption was that they were alluding to the amount of time this man has been struggling with insomnia. The surreal was largely lost on me. Regardless, I agree with you. If we treat the absurd as an alternate reality we may find the connection for change because, ultimately, it gives us another way to look at how things relate and how we interact with life. [According to the Rozerem website, it is a beaver] Write comment Name Website Title Comment

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About "The Absurd"

When we think of the wondrous and the mysterious we often think of the deep and the profound. The deep and the profound obviously create a sense of wonder in us and move us in ways that we can't explain. But there is another aspect of wonder that often gets overlooked-the ABSURD. In the same way that there are things that move us because of their profundity and beauty, there are other things that move us to a joy that cannot be intellectualized, a sense of enjoyment that has no explanation. The author G.K. Chesterton describes this inability to explain these things that move us to joy as the "problem of pleasure."

"Why is sex fun? Reproduction surely doesn't require pleasure: Some animals simply split in half to reproduce, and even humans use methods of artificial insemination that involve no pleasure. Why is eating enjoyable? Plants and the lower animals manage to obtain their quota of nutrients without the luxury of taste buds. Why are there colors? Some people get along fine without the ability to detect color. Why complicate vision for all the rest of us?"

It is this pleasure and joy that we cannot begin to explain (why the lip gloss song is so catchy, why Strong Bad's randomness is so funny, why Sufjan's costumes and inflatable props make the concert so much more than a concert, etc.) that we hope you can experience in the Absurd section of this site. There are many times when exploring mystery and wonder expand our understanding... but there are also times when we must revel in the absurdity and let a piece of art, a song, a video, etc. simply be what it is and to enjoy it at that level.

Welcome to the Absurd section of rednow.