John Sladek's introduction:
Don't be fooled by the Surrealist title. Most of these stories are
only meant to be fun, and no serious messages are intended.
Surrealism is supposed to have something to do with Freud and
dreams, which doesn't sound entertaining at all. Psychiatrists know
how boring re-told dreams can be, and so do the husbands and wives of
dreamers, at their breakfast tables. Freud never strikes you as
exactly a barrel of fun either, does he? Especially after he came down
from Mount Ararat with the graven tables of Dream Interpretation.
Probably what was wrong with Surrealism all along was that it got
defined precisely and interpreted exactly. Nothing can stand up to
that. Think of all the serious critics who've gone over and over The
Castle of Otranto, until it's lost most of its original appeal.
I've met dozens of people who've read this gothic classic through
without laughing.
Readers who don't like laughing can have their own kind of
entertainment out of this collection. If they will only frown and bear
it, reading all of the stories, they will find an exact interpretation
in the Afterword. A friend of mine wrote it, and I believe it spoils
every story here.
People have laughed at all great inventors and discoverers. They
laughed at Galileo, at Edison's light bulb, and even at nitrous oxide.
I hope they will laugh, a little, at these stories. |