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Sleeping fit by Benjamin Peret

First hypnotic sleeping fits

Manuscript

Author

Author Benjamin Péret
People cited André Breton, Robert Desnos, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Philippe Soupault, Tristan Tzara

Description

Sleeping fit by Benjamin Péret, questioned first in writing then out loud; 26 sheets, titled and dated Saturday 30 September 1922.
It is Péret who is questioned in this set of 26 pages dated Saturday 30 September, first of all in writing – it is striking to note the distortion of the handwriting compared to that of the questioner – and then out loud, on the last but one page. It is then, and only then, that the text really gets going, and that Péret really shifts to the surrealist side of consciousness. Up to this point the questions waver between a playful appeal to an oracle (something Tzara would do five years later) and the appeal of psychodrama (do you like Soupault?). In this way, once the initial marvel wore off, the group seems to free itself to explore the 

many directions – be they esoteric or psychological – in which the practice of ‘sleeping fits’ could lead.

30 September 1922.
25 in-4° manuscript pages numbered 2 to 9 on the back of headed notepaper for the Congrès de Paris, and 10 to 26 on manilla, often written in blue pencil by Breton who transcribes the questions to Péret, and by Desnos in black pencil with Péret’s replies; in a folder titled by Breton: ‘Saturday 30 September - Péret.’

Bibliography

- « Sommeil » , Littérature nouvelle série n° 6, 1^er novembre 1922.