I Remember
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This exercise is inspired by the Surrealist technique of “automatic writing” and the American author Joe Brainard’s memoir I Remember.
Surrealism and its precursor, Dadaism, originated as a philosophical and cultural movement in Europe, primarily in France, in the aftermath of World War I. The Dadaists and Surrealists rejected the authority of the supposedly “rational” thoughts and values that had led the world into war. Instead of relying on rational thought to make connections, Dadaist and Surrealist art and writing relied on the more “random” movements, images, and juxtapositions of the subconscious mind or the dreaming mind. Surrealist and Dadaist artists and thinkers believed that our subconscious and seemingly irrational thoughts are more authentic than our “conscious” thoughts, which are censored and influenced by the morals and conventions of society. The Surrealists and Dadaists had a number of techniques and games to free the conscious mind; “automatic writing” was one of those techniques. To practice automatic writing, a person must simply begin writing and continue writing without censoring any of the thoughts or images that come to mind. The writer must not stop writing what comes to mind, even though the content may seem strange or disconnected. For the Surrealists and Dadaists, this “stream of consciousness” was left unrevised, but for contemporary writers influenced by these movements, this uncensored flow of language may then be revised or mined for ideas or images.