New Myths

To play: create a new myth to try to explain the mystery of the universe, from the perspective of an ant. Suitable for all ages, from 2 to 100 players.

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New myths may be invented to 'explain' the universe. As an example, here is the beginning of André Breton's THE GREAT TRANSPARENT ONES:

‍"Man perhaps is not the centre, the cynosure of the universe. One might easily believe that there exists above him in the scale of animals, beings whose behaviour is as strange to him as his may be to the mayfly or the whale. Nothing seems to prevent these creatures from completely escaping the reference system of the human senses by means of camouflage of whatever nature one cares to imagine: the theory of forms and the existence of mimetic animals is alone enough to suggest such a possibility. Doubtless there is plenty of room for speculation here, depsite the fact that this notion puts man in the same modest situation vis-a-vis the interpretation of an ant is formed after he has just kicked over an ant-hill..."

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Extract from Surrealist Games compiled by Alastair Brotchie and edited by Mel Gooding (1995)

The Surrealist movement that arose in Europe in the early 1900s used playful procedures and systematic stratagems to create provocative works and challenge the conventions of art, literature, and society. They conducted their experiments through art and polemic, manifesto and demonstration, love and politics. But it was above all through game-playing that they sought to subvert academic modes of inquiry and undermine the complacent certainties of the bourgeoisie. Surrealist games is a delightful compendium that allows the reader to enjoy firsthand the methodologies of the Surreal, with their amazing swings between the verbal and the visual, the beautiful and the grotesque.

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