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Sleeping fit by Robert Desnos of 27 October 1922

First hypnotic sleeping fits

Manuscript

Author

Author Robert Desnos
People cited Arthur Cravan, Anne-Josèphe Terwagne, dite Théroigne de Méricourt, Maurice Rostand, Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, Roger Vitrac, Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp
Notes by Simone Kahn, ép. Breton puis Collinet, André Breton, Benjamin Péret

Description

Rrose Sélavy communicates through the mouth and the drawings of a sleeping Robert Desnos, replying to the questions by Benjamin Péret, Simone Kahn and André Breton, in this sleeping fit of 27 October 1922.

This collection, dated 27 October, opens with a few word plays (‘latinité / la trinité’ – ‘latinity / the trinity’), as often picking up from religious motifs a series of phrases spun around the figure of Rrose Sélavy before pushing the provocation a little further: ‘Rrose Sélavy glisse le cœur de Jésus dans le jeu des Crésus’ (‘Rrose Sélavy slips the heart of Jesus into the games of Croesus’), advice to Catholics suggesting they await ‘le jour de la foi’ (‘the day of faith’) so as through death to ‘jouir de la faulx’ (‘orgasm by the scythe’)... Next the word games contaminate friendly figures, jostling them as they develop: thus Vitrac is reduced to the ‘trac’ of his ‘vit’ (the ‘jitters’ of his ‘dick’)... Cravan, Vaché and Breton appear like this too, the latter shown as a bust surrounded by lightbulbs. Breton? That’s what a note on the back of the drawing states, but the attentive viewer cannot fail to notice the portrait’s resemblance to Desnos himself, far more than to his friend. De Sade is the subject of the final series of notes, in the start of a dialogue in which the revolutionary figure of Théroigne de Méricourt also appears. Just as Breton would do in the first Manifesto of Surrealism, here the sleeping Desnos is outlining a genealogy. 

First hypnotic sleeping fits, 27 October 1922.
- 6 handwritten pages in black ink, written by Breton, Desnos, Simone Kahn and Péret, of word games and surrealist games:
‘Rrose Sélavy slips the heart of Jesus into the games of Croesus’ 

‘At the bottom of a mine, Rrose Selavy prepares the end of the world’ 

‘The pretty sister was saying: “My birthright for his finger, Ernest”’
‘You say that with an air of uncertainty, Vitrac, do you have jitters like your dick?’ 
- 2 original drawings by Robert Desnos, the first titled on the back by Breton ‘Portrait of Breton’ showing a man’s head wearing glasses, surrounded by Desnos’ favourite objects: a boat, a heart pierced by an arrow, etc. (24 x 32 cm).
The second, abstract, drawing is titled ‘Death of Cravan.’ (24 x 32 cm)