For the most part, I wasn't particularly moved by the "Manifesto of Surrealism." It seemed like Breton was simply trying to universalize his own opinion by making a bunch of generalizations, generalizations that I don't think always hold true for everyone, such as "Children set off each day without worry in the world. Everything is near at hand, the worst material conditions are fine," "The mind of the man who dreams is fully satisfied by what happens to him," and "At an early age children are weaned on the marvelous, and later on they fail to retain a sufficient virginity of mind to thoroughly enjoy fairy tales," (4, 13, 15). These statements all sounded nice when I read them, but then when I paused to think about what they actually implied, I found myself unconvinced.
That being said, I really did enjoy his advocacy for mystery on pages 9 and 10, beginning with "Our brains are dulled by the incurable mania of wanting to make the unknown known, classifiable. The desire for analysis wins out over the sentiments." This was something I could relate to, in our formulaic, 5-steps-to-the-perfect-life society. We have a seemingly innate resistance to the idea that something could be unknowable, incomprehensible. Which is why leaving the reader with unanswered questions is such a powerful technique.
However, I don't believe that "rationality/logic" and "surrealism" should be viewed as polar opposites. In fact, I don't think you can even completely separate them. And why try? Why go from one extreme to the other? Everyone's minds process their thoughts and experiences differently. That's what makes life so interesting.
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