--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Surrealism can only deliver a reactionary…" description: "\"Surrealism can only deliver a reactionary judgment; can make out of history only an accumulation of oddities, a joke, a death trip.\" — Susan Sontag" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d73/susan-sontag-332_accumulation_surrealism-can-only-deliver-a-reactionar_226710.jpg" --- # Surrealism can only deliver a reactionary judgment; can… ![“Surrealism can only deliver a reactionary judgment; can make out of history only an accumulation of oddities, a joke, a death trip.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d73/susan-sontag-332_accumulation_surrealism-can-only-deliver-a-reactionar_226710.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d73/susan-sontag-332_accumulation_surrealism-can-only-deliver-a-reactionar_226710.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d73/susan-sontag-332_accumulation_surrealism-can-only-deliver-a-reactionar_226710.jpg) > “Surrealism can only deliver a reactionary judgment; can make out of history only an accumulation of oddities, a joke, a death trip.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Surrealism reduces history to bizarre, superficial fragments, losing depth and meaning. **In simple terms:** Surrealism can trivialize history. Key Takeaway Seek deeper historical context. Themes art history interpretation Mood critical skeptical Type analytical philosophical When to use this quote - museum curation - academic analysis - media criticism Key Concepts postmodernism critical theory Questions to Reflect On - What aspects of history do you feel are missed? - How can art retain depth? A Different Perspective May overlook emotional resonance. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Accumulation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accumulation/) [Death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death/) [History Accumulation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/history-accumulation-772284/) [Joke Death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/joke-death-1728294/) [Jokes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/jokes/) [Judgment](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/judgment/) [Make out](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/make-out/) [Oddities](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/oddities/) [Reactionaries](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reactionaries/) [Reactionary Judgment](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reactionary-judgment-2305180/) [Surrealism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/surrealism/) [Surrealism Deliver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/surrealism-deliver-2305179/) ## Related quotes > [History is not the accumulation of events of every kind which happened in the past. It is the science of human societies.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/numa-denis-fustel-de-coulanges/history-is-not-the-accumulation-of-events-of-every-kind-which/) [Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/numa-denis-fustel-de-coulanges/) > [“Tiny threads of time are the warp and woof of God’s redemptive tapestry: a series of todays, used well or poorly. God has ordained…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-m-davis/tiny-threads-of-time-are-the-warp-and-woof-of-god-s-redemptive/) [Andrew M. Davis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-m-davis/) > [Don't take this life as a joke because death is not a joke it's real..](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ritu-ghatourey/don-t-take-this-life-as-a-joke-because-death-is-not-a-joke-it-s-real/) [Ritu Ghatourey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ritu-ghatourey/) > [History is an accumulation of error.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/norman-cousins/history-is-an-accumulation-of-error/) [Norman Cousins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/norman-cousins/) > [“Death is another story. I will never make a joke about death. It is beyond my powers.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mario-puzo/death-is-another-story-i-will-never-make-a-joke-about-death-it-is/) [Mario Puzo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mario-puzo/) > [“If we do not laugh, we will cry. Crying will only make us hotter and sweatier. We Jews like to joke about death because…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-yolen/if-we-do-not-laugh-we-will-cry-crying-will-only-make-us-hotter-and/) [Jane Yolen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-yolen/) > [If you appreciate the value of life, you dont joke about death.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/if-you-appreciate-the-value-of-life-you-dont-joke-about-death/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Personal and world history is an accumulation of todays, and how they were spent.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-m-davis/personal-and-world-history-is-an-accumulation-of-todays-and-how-they/) [Andrew M. Davis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-m-davis/) > [One day, digital will be it. Analog will just be another oddity, and that's fine, too. I have no great misgivings about it, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-vanderslice/one-day-digital-will-be-it-analog-will-just-be-another-oddity-and/) [John Vanderslice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-vanderslice/) > [Arithmetic starts with the integers and proceeds by successively enlarging the number system by rational and negative numbers, irrational numbers, etc... But the next…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abraham-robinson/arithmetic-starts-with-the-integers-and-proceeds-by-successively/) [Abraham Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abraham-robinson/) > [A child who can love the oddities of a fantasy book cannot possibly be xenophobic as an adult. What is a different color, a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-yolen/a-child-who-can-love-the-oddities-of-a-fantasy-book-cannot-possibly/) [Jane Yolen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-yolen/) > [Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/molly-ivins/be-outrageous-ridicule-the-fraidy-cats-rejoice-in-all-the-oddities/) [Molly Ivins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/molly-ivins/) > [For me, I want to see diversity in storytelling sources because we live in a very diverse society, and the stories are for the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lynn-shelton/for-me-i-want-to-see-diversity-in-storytelling-sources-because-we/) [Lynn Shelton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lynn-shelton/) > [ One of the oddities of this election is the man that \[Donald\] Trump chose as his vice-president, Mike Pence, is one of the Kochs'… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-mayer/one-of-the-oddities-of-this-election-is-the-man-that-donald-trump/) [Jane Mayer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-mayer/) > [There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-adams/there-are-some-oddities-in-the-perspective-with-which-we-see-the-world/) [Douglas Adams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-adams/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/why-not-eliminate-schooling-between-age-12-16-it-s-biologically/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Accumulation quotes > [Age is an accumulation of life and loss. Adulthood is a series of lines crossed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-goodman/age-is-an-accumulation-of-life-and-loss-adulthood-is-a-series-of/) [Ellen Goodman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-goodman/) > [Before World War II, I was living a very cloistered existence, as most cartoonists do. The work I was pouring out did not come…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/will-eisner/before-world-war-ii-i-was-living-a-very-cloistered-existence-as-most/) [Will Eisner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/will-eisner/) > [It is more than a little ironic that "capital accumulation" once a rather tendentious Marxian view of a supposed capitalist obsession, should have become…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-kuttner/it-is-more-than-a-little-ironic-that-capital-accumulation-once-a/) [Robert Kuttner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-kuttner/) > [The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-madison/the-accumulation-of-all-powers-legislative-executive-and-judiciary-in/) [James Madison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-madison/) > [I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-einstein/i-think-that-only-daring-speculation-can-lead-us-further-and-not/) [Albert Einstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-einstein/) > [Karma is often wrongly confused with the notion of a fixed destiny. It is more like an accumulation of tendencies that can lock us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jon-kabat-zinn/karma-is-often-wrongly-confused-with-the-notion-of-a-fixed-destiny-it/) [Jon Kabat-Zinn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jon-kabat-zinn/) > [There has been, for some reason (or more likely an unfortunate accumulation of reasons) a trend over the past several decades for parents to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carolyn-hax/there-has-been-for-some-reason-or-more-likely-an-unfortunate/) [Carolyn Hax](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carolyn-hax/) > [Ageing is, simply and clearly, the accumulation of damage in the body. That's all that ageing is.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aubrey-de-grey/ageing-is-simply-and-clearly-the-accumulation-of-damage-in-the-body/) [Aubrey de Grey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aubrey-de-grey/) > [For me, personally, there is one really interesting thing. You're all a bit too young for that, but when you get to a certain…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christoph-waltz/for-me-personally-there-is-one-really-interesting-thing-you-re-all-a/) [Christoph Waltz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christoph-waltz/) > [The mounting burden of taxation not only undermines individual incentives to increased work and earnings, but in a score of ways discourages capital accumulation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-hazlitt/the-mounting-burden-of-taxation-not-only-undermines-individual/) [Henry Hazlitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-hazlitt/) > [When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals. We shall…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-maynard-keynes/when-the-accumulation-of-wealth-is-no-longer-of-high-social/) [John Maynard Keynes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-maynard-keynes/) > [The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity. They forget, perhaps, that his religion forbade the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-alexander-eastman/the-native-american-has-been-generally-despised-by-his-white/) [Charles Alexander Eastman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-alexander-eastman/) > [The soul lives forever by giving, not receiving. This is the grand paradox. You get most by giving most. Conversely, by receiving much you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julian-johnson/the-soul-lives-forever-by-giving-not-receiving-this-is-the-grand/) [Julian Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julian-johnson/) > [Forgiveness of the present is even more important than forgiveness of the past. 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