How does one experience surrealism?

How does one experience surrealism? Surreal is defined as being oddly dreamlike. There is a hole in reality that allows the possibility of the fantastic. Many of the stories I've written employ surrealism, such as "He Paid It No Mind." In the story's opening, the sky is filled with lightning and bowling balls. There is a refrain after each scene: "He paid it no mind," juxtaposing reality with fantasy.

One of my favorite surreal stories is "Letter to a Young Lady in Paris" by Julio Cortázar. All seems normal as a man stays in the apartment of his friend, who is in Paris. But we are early on dipped into the surreal when we learn that the man vomits live bunnies. He goes about his day working as a translator, while the bunnies sleep in the wardrobe. He then lets them out to play, but soon the bunnies are destroying the apartment, breaking glass, and chewing book covers. It becomes obvious that the man is psychotic and hallucinating the bunnies. There is a tragic twist at the end, bringing us back to reality. The stories of Borges are very often surreal and are highly recommended.

Surrealism stands best against a backdrop of realism. Entering the surreal world, we become aware of the strangeness as it contrasts with realistic details. Surrealism can be found in paintings, sculpture, music, and writing. Often, surreal events happen in the natural world, and the shock of being immersed in the surreal can make life seem like a dream.

I write surreal stories, I think, to escape the logic of everyday life. There is a longing for something strange and different. There is often an aspect of magical realism in the surreal, allowing actions and insights not available in a "normal" world. Surreal stories can rely less on plot, but can also be crafted around plot. Character and setting details are still important in a surreal story, but the strangeness takes on a life of its own, providing otherwise hidden channels to explore humanity.

It may be that artists who live with mental illness have a proclivity for creating surreal works. Staging the unreal and sometimes the impossible, those living with mental illness (LWML), especially those experiencing psychosis, find validation of their own seeming impossibility. In a literal sense, the narrative of self, to better understand the self LWMI and others.

I've written perhaps three truly surreal novels, one of which is Fade. The premise is that our main character learns of the death by suicide of a casual acquaintance, and he wants to bring her back to life, which he does by slowly courting her ghost. Within fiction, he succeeds, but then he faces an ultimate impossibility in the end. Without the possibilities of surrealism, the story would not work. It would be too mechanical.

In summary, surreal art, such as fiction, expands the possibilities of mortal life. Often, it's the impossible that is required, but the surreal can also be told quietly.