An aspect of The Chicago Surrealists - David Wise

The original Lachez Tout by Annie le Brun on the now redacted Revolt Against Plenty web was presented without translation in the original French. It was such an interesting text we felt no matter what it simply had to have some global airing across the globe. We were unaware at the time that the book had been recently translated into English by Guy Ducornet at the University of Texas. Sometime later Lachez Tout was to be included in Surrealist Women. An International Anthology edited by Penelope Rosemont, a figurehead of the Chicago Surrealists. And thereby hangs a tale: Only after the RAP web had been deleted did the text appear in English via the auspices of the Wayback Machine. It looks as though the development of AI has worked its way behind our backs as it certainly isn't Ducornet's translation! Nonetheless the text hovers endlessly between translation and rudimentary English so I (David Wise) decided to try and make a more permanent product which I'm still not satisfied with.

Although it can be said that generally the International Situationist groupuscule superseded Surrealism with its overall 'total' analysis and lucidity, in practise it didn't quite work out like that. Although Surrealism had little profile in the revolution of May 1968 in France many latter day surrealists participated in the insurrection with great gusto contributing more than a few good slogans with some of its participants ending up in jail for taking to the barricades and other daring provocative acts. Although by then Surrealism had been eclipsed in France, the movement continued to flourish in Belgium (particularly via the influence of Scutenaire on individuals such as the major Situationist contributor, Raoul Vaneigem) but, especially - in regard to the present text - the Chicago Surrealists in the USA. (Sad to say Surrealism in the UK had been pretty lamentable but then gained a bit of latter-day traction in the late 1960s).

Undoubtedly by that time Surrealism in itself had attained a much greater, more total, coherence. Gone were the days of their in and out relationship with Communist parties - especially the French Communist party - as they honed 'political' preferences down to the anarchists, massively influenced by the Spanish Revolution of 1936-39 having played a major role. But it is to the USA and what became known as the Chicago Surrealist Group where the emphasis is placed in this intro. In a way the Chicago group is inseparable from the revolts of the late 1960s in America rather than a 'classical' surrealist discourse. More than that, by opening up a publishing house which produced a regular baseline mag called Arsenal, Surrealist Subversion they quickly got their insights out across the globe. It could even be said that their researches into the labour history and radicalism of earlier 20th century America proved to be original, astounding and brilliantly informed. The figures of Franklin and Penelope Rosemont were axiomatic in this regard. Franklin's huge biography of Joe Hill - the American Wobbly (Joe Hill, the IWW and the Making of a Revolutionary Working Class, Counterculture) is so good that it was almost impossible to put down and the same can be said of Penelope Rosemont's Surrealism and Everyday Life. Regarding the latter, has anybody written about Chicago in such a mesmeric way in say capturing the soul of the city's former blues and jazz experience? Equally Franklin's biography of Joe Hill is hardly a biography in the traditional sense of the term and is more a framework for discussing disparate radical tendencies. Thus who else could place together radical IWW incidents in New York from 1913 (Picabia's pre Dada contribution to the Armory exhibition) together with the first exhibiting of Duchamp's urinal in 1917 and with it, the advent of full-on Dada via the assistance of a new found cohort who was to play a major part in the future French surrealist movement, name of Man Ray? And then who can forget the emphasis on the proposed 1000 mile long onwards Wobbly picket line running through America and Canada and a fact that Franklin Rosemont had emphasised. I remember the joy I got in discussing this radical new historiography with Loren Goldner in my scruffy flat in Notting Hill around 2017. Loren thought it was too OTT whilst I felt it more a realization of Lautreamont's maxim of "new tremors running through the atmosphere" rather than sticking to any specific fact of historical incident, at the same time as both of us were leery of contemporary myth-making, fake news, the plethora of conspiracy theories and, misinformation that is utterly destroying the Internet's social media centred around the ubiquitous phone.

I first became aware of the existence of The Chicago Surrealists hanging out with Ben Morea and the nascent Motherfuckers on the streets of the Lower East Side in New York in the late 1960s. Little did I realise that by then Charlie Radcliffe of the pre King Mob UK situationists was already on good terms with Franklin Rosemont, and moreover a friendship which remained constant for many a decade to come.

It's therefore hardly surprising that Penelope quickly recognised just how good Annie le Brun was. She was not alone and even Guy Debord himself had cause to contact Annie towards the late 1970s, never forgetting that years earlier Guy Debord and Andre Breton would pass each other on the streets of the Latin Quarter in Paris never saying hello to each other, each knowing full well who the other was. However, Debord most likely contacted Annie Le Brun because of her two former books on De Sade especially Sade: A Sudden Abyss and probably not because of her excellent critical take on contemporary feminism sometime later - re Lachez Tout in 1977- as Annie memorably described its general ambience as "Stalinism in petticoats" and / or "the brave new Mao-feminist world"........

In a way Annie le Brun in Lachez Tout is an extension of her previous writings. Tellingly she says "Neo-feminism is organised around the abyss of impossible love." Instead she is looking for "a sumptuous eroticization of revolt against a background of nothingness". It isn't an untruth to say it is written in the style of Andre Breton dense with allusion and juxtaposition ranging far and wide underscored with a distaste for morality and "the clerisy" so in that sense it's surrealist to the very core. Instead of praising Simon de Beauvoir and her book The Second Sex she pours scorn on it having nothing to do with the Existentialists who hogged the limelight in the 1950s. Historically, the women she really hones in on are the feminists of the Paris Commune of 1871 like Annie Leclerc, Louis Michel and Flora Tristan ("Delicious Flora") often coming up with great quotes from them. More than that Annie le Brun's Lachez Tout is also full of invented words which makes it virtually impossible to translate with any accuracy. Essentially she sees in modern day neo-feminism the "de-sexualisation of life" taken over by individuals who haven't a clue about real contemporary subversion as represented by the likes of Baudelaire, Wilde, the Dadaists, Vache, Cravan, and Stirner, etc, etc, and like the first edition of the King Mob mag she even references Norman O' Brown and Love's Body. In fact, Annie noting that previously all Dandies were male so that now she wants to see female Dandies everywhere.

And behind these notable women of the Paris Commune are the hordes of 'other' women whom Annie Le Brun praises to the skies and which she refers to as "Amazons" in the old-fashioned sense of the word - wild, women warriors - and not, need it be said, the Amazons of todays hi-tech Geoff Bezos like neo-feudalism.

Also, and hardly hidden from view behind Annie's unmasking of neo-feminism is their adherence to academia, TV, official exhibitions, etc, in "sweetly racist France". It's the basic banalities behind neo-feminism she disdains, the way the main protagonists are desperate for literary fame, who, in turn, become "bureaucrats of neo-feminist sensibility" creating "a revolution in costume but nothing more" supporting police and prisons just like your average Communist party member. And then suddenly - out of the blue - she rightly supports Valerie Solanas - the gal who shot Andy Warhol - and whom I vaguely bumped into in the early Motherfucker momentum. Annie looks for weapons, original weapons "of a knife without a blade that lacks the handle". Remember too the polemic was published in 1977 thus put into orbit before the overthrow of so-called communism in Russia and Eastern Europe..........

Within the last few years a couple of Annie Le Brun's books, The Reality Overload and A Sudden Abyss have been published in America and not before time as the latter is the best reflection on De Sade ever written. However perhaps her two most important (and controversial) works, Lachez Tout and Vagit Prop have yet to see the light of day in the English speaking part of the world most likely because they will almost certainly upset stereotypical Anglo-American feminist responses, (Annie's preferences are by way of insurrectionary anarchist women like Flora Tristan and Louise Michel enmeshed with individual Dadaists and Surrealists). Hopefully the inclusion of Lachez Tout (Abandon Everything) here on the RAP website spurs some publisher to take up the challenge. Annie Le Brun's French, which is heavily influenced by André Breton's sometimes dense style of writing - itself legacy of wide-ranging symbolist association - is difficult at the best of times, so don't get too frustrated as you will be rewarded by unmasking hidden depths. Moreover, we hope people will begin to get some idea as to what her arguments are about and for those with little acquaintance of the French language resorting to the translation tool bar will also be useful. Furthermore, we have all heard, translator software is said to be on the cusp of dramatic improvement, so here's hoping.........? One further technical point: the formatting of Lachez Tout still leaves much to be desired and there are minor mistakes especially in applying all the grave and acute accents etc, which will take some time to put in. However, what's more important is that Annie le Brun's veritable hive of freshly minted word play seems to imply a need for a creative rejuvenation of the French language.

It can be said that Annie Le Brun never really broke away from "the ball and chain of art" eternally hanging around gallery culture or as I whimsically defined it - or if you like - stuck in the ambience of Icteric in late 1960s Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Annie simply couldn't make the jump away from the ever increasing emptiness of the so called "creative industries" which play such a vital role in the endless 24/7 imaging essential for the reproduction of Suicide Capitalism. Nonetheless, there was an ever increasing sharp edge there as in later years Annie fulminated against the money madness surrounding all art today together with sheer hatred of all contemporary building cum architecture. May I also say she was somewhat aware of what Stuart and myself were up to as he engaged in some kind of distant emailing replying deploying one of his pseudonyms! Was that the famous Ranter, Lawrence Clarkson of the English revolution of the 1640s? One day I must search more through these emails.......

Nonetheless in recent years Lachez Tout has sadly been drastically neglected in the publicity surrounding all of Annie Le Brun's prolific oeuvre. Indeed it's usually never mentioned. No doubt this is a product of the algorithm of the sales pitch of a kleptocracy cum plutocracy like we've never known in history and as such a stinging comment on these dire times.....

David Wise. 2024

(Most of the above was put together in the weeks before Annie's sad death on July 29th, 2024 aged 81)

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Below: Editorial Comment at the beginning of Lachez Tout by David and Stuart Wise: December 2010

(Within the last few years a couple of Annie Le Brun's books, The Reality Overload and A Sudden Abyss have been published in America and not before time as the latter is the best reflection on De Sade ever written. However perhaps her two most important (and controversial) works, Lachez Tout and Vagit Prop have only relatively recently seen the light of day in the English speaking part of the world most likely because they will almost certainly upset stereotypical Anglo-American feminist responses, (Annie's preferences are by way of insurrectionary anarchist women like Flora Tristan and Louise Michel enmeshed with individual Dadaists and Surrealists). Hopefully the inclusion of Lachez Tout (Abandon Everything) here on the RAP website spurs some publisher to take up the challenge. Annie Le Brun's French, which is heavily influenced by André Breton's sometimes dense style of writing - itself legacy of wide-ranging symbolist association - is difficult at the best of times, so don't get too frustrated as you will be rewarded by unmasking hidden depths. Moreover, we hope people will begin to get some idea as to what her arguments are about and for those with little acquaintance of the French language resorting to the translation tool bar will also be useful. Furthermore, we have just heard, translator software is said to be on the cusp of dramatic improvement, so here's hoping.........? One further technical point: the formatting of Lachez Tout still leaves much to be desired and there are minor mistakes especially in applying all the grave and acute accents etc, which will take some time to put in. )