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Sleeping fit of 22 October 1922

First hypnotic sleeping fits

Manuscript

Author

Authors Robert Desnos, non identifié
People cited Jacques Baron, Paul Éluard, Philippe Soupault, Max Ernst
Notes by Louis Aragon, André Breton

Description

Manuscript of a sleeping fit written and dated 22 October [1922] originating from Desnos while asleep or the work of Breton in the mode of the sleeping fits.

Reading these pages dated 22 October [1922] one wonders what they are: a conversation with a sleeping Desnos who has managed to reach the peak of his creative potential, or the work of Breton – whose handwriting is familiar – in the mode of the results obtained during the ‘sleeping fits’? ‘People’s thoughts [pensées] like chores [pensums]’ dictates the man one had thought to be asleep, as though in reply. The verbal density documented here, and the imperfect character of some of the ‘verses’ (the hiatus of ‘What Baron likes is a muzzle on his soul’ [‘Ce que Baron aime, c'est le baillon sur l'âme’]) suggest that this is a particularly dazzling session of improvisations whilst asleep. In deciphering the manuscript one is struck by the assertoric, not to say oracular, aspect of the majority of the phrases – such as ‘the mistrust of songs opens the prison doors’ [‘le mépris des chansons ouvre les portes des prisons’]. The ‘technique’ of puns and spoonerisms is also given full rein here, for example playing on phonetic analogies (‘folles’ [mad] and ‘yoles’ [skiffs])  or bringing out the resonance of multiple meanings of a word – for instance with Gala Éluard being the pretext for a ‘gala’.

First hypnotic sleeping fits.
22 October 1922.
- 4 in-4° manuscript pages on the headed notepaper for Littérature, probably written in part by Breton and Aragon (2 pages in blue ink) and by Breton alone (2 pages in black pencil), kept in a sheet of paper dated by Breton.
The beginning of Aragon’s text is the draft of his text of 24 October 1922:
‘The sunken eyes [yeux caves] of M.[ax] E.[rnst] treasure the caverns’.
Breton’s manuscript is illustrated by him with two small drawings an ink representing men seen in profile: ‘People’s thoughts [pensées] like chores [pensums]’ 
‘The flag that blazes at the labyrinth’s gate 

Is not the carnal sex of the last embrace

But the rivers of flesh flowing from these craters

Have drowned the children errors of our chimeras.’