ISSUE 4 THE SEA Published by Peculiar Mormyrid peculiarmormyrid.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher or author. Texts Copyright © The Authors Images Copyright © The Artists Direction: Jason Abdelhadi, Casi Cline, Steven Cline, Angel Therese Dionne, Patrik Sampler Cover Art by Megan Leach First Edition 2016 CONTRIBUTORS Jason Abdelhadi S. Higgins Jesús García Rodríguez Gale Ahrens Patrick Hourihan Penelope Rosemont John Thomas Allen Dale Houstman Ody Saban Christian Andersson Bill Howe Ron Sakolsky Teeves Anguy Karl Howeth Patrik Sampler Bruno Barnabé Mary Jacob Pierre-André Sauvageot Erik Bohman Alex Januário Pieter Schermer Maurizio Brancaleoni Elva Jozef Ladonna Smith Maria Brothers Riyota Kasamatsu Ethan Snyder Alice Cephalopod Kenn Kennedy Arthur Spota Steven Cline Stephen Kirin RW Spryszak Casi Cline Stelli Kirk Deborah Stevenson Dominick Coppi Laura Lake Hugh Sykes Davies Kenneth Cox Megan Leach Kate Tattersfield Amber Craig Rik Lina Martin Trippett Paul Day CM Lundberg Mair Twissell Luke Dominey Emma Lundenmark TD Typaldos Lorna Olivia Donoghue Josie Malinowska John Welson Joffrey Floyd Doyon Renzo Margonari Tim White Jan Drabble Heidi McCulloch Davey Williams Rikki Ducornet Paul McRandle Johnny Williams Kim Fagerstam Andrew Mendez Neko Linda Williams Merl Fluin Sarah Metcalfe Craig Wilson Mattias Forshage Steve Morrison Bill Wolak Beth Garon David Nadeau Collective Contributions From: Joël Gayraud Niklas Nenzén Fresh Dirt Guy Girard Ika Österblad Inner Island Surrealist Group Christian Girard Serge Pluvinage Leeds Surrealist Group Larita Grasshopper John Richardson Surrealist Group of Stockholm Janice Hathaway Michael Richardson Surrealist London Under Takers Beatriz Hausner (SLUT) CONTENTS INQUIRY ....................6 TIM WHITE...................8 STEVEN CLINE..................15 CEPHALOPODA JASON ABDELHADI .............. 23 Deborah Stevenson ............ 24 PENELOPE ROSEMONT ............. 27 Josie Malinowska................29 JESSE TREECE ..................32 Bruno BarnabÉ .................38 Inner Island Surrealist Group . .........42 Bill Wolak .............. ..... 45 Karl Howeth ............... 48 Dale Houstman .............. 49 Bill Wolak .............. ..... 50 MEGAN LEACH ............... 54 Mattias Forshage............ ...55 CASI CLINE...................61 Patrik Sampler.................62 ANDREW MENDEZ............... 67 CASI CLINE...................70 Deborah Stevenson ..............71 Maurizio Brancaleoni..............72 Pierre-ANDRÉ Sauvageot.............75 Pieter J. Schermer...............79 NUDIBRANCHIA EMMA Lundenmark............. 82 STEVEN CLINE ............... 83 Arthur David Spota...............85 AleX JANUÁrio.................89 Michael Richardson............ 92 Deborah Stevenson ..............96 ODY SABAN . .................97 RW Spryszak.............. .... 100 Renzo Margonari............. 103 David Nadeau............... 104 Christian Girard............. 105 Joffrey Floyd Doyon .............107 EMMA Lundenmark............. 110 MEGAN LEACH .................110 Gale Ahrens .................111 HEIDI BIRD ................ 112 JOHN WELSON. ................115 RIK LINA ................ .... 115 Laura Lake................ 116 Dominick Coppi.............. 120 Rikki Ducornet................121 PAUL MCRANDLE ................122 John Richardson............. 123 CRUstaCEA Kenn Kennedy .............. 125 STEVE MORRISON .............. 126 MEGAN LEACH................ 127 T.D.Typaldos................ 128 EMMA Lundenmark............. 130 Beth Garon ................ 131 Neko Linda................. 132 Davey Williams, Johnny Williams, JANICE Hathaway...132 FRESH DIRT................. 133 Stephen Kirin................ 134 AleX JANUÁrio.................137 MERL FLUIN................. 142 RIK LINA ...................143 Allan Vilu ................ 145 Stelli Kerk ................. 145 Kenn Kennedy .............. 125 STEVE MORRISON .............. 126 MEGAN LEACH................ 127 Pieter J. Schermer...............149 Michael Richardson............ 152 MARIA BROTHERS................157 Kate Tattersfield ............. 159 GUY Girard..................161 JANICE HATHAWAY.............. 162 EMMA Lundenmark............. 163 Beatriz Hausner.............. 164 JOËL Gayraud............... 165 MADREPORA LEEDS SURREALIST GROUP........... 168 The Surrealist Group OF Stockholm..... 174 CM Lundberg............... 186 JASON Abdelhadi & Amber Craig ....... 187 SLUT, the Surrealist London Under Takers......197 QUESTIONS................ 199 JOHN RICHARDSON & JOHN WELSON........ 201 OCEAN Proverbs & Superstitions....... 203 BURIAL AT SEA............... 205 TIM WHITE................ 207 S HIGGINS................. 210 INQUIRY INTO SURREALISM AND the SEA & MARINE COMMUNISM All contributions to this issue were submitted as a response to the following inquiry or to themes contained therein. 1. Michelet declared that the monsters of the sea are seeking “thy Death, universal Death, and the destruction of the Earth, a return to black Night and ancient Chaos.” Can the Sea function as a negation of the status quo? Do you envision the monsters and weaponry of the sea as potent forces against civilization, capitalism and miserabilism? How might this destruction unfold? The Surrealist Group of Stockholm: To the extent that wilderness or the unknown would be a potent political force, it seems perhaps cyni- cal, self-contradictory and vain to try to harness it as a draught horse and define its expected action. On a more general level, monsters are among our best friends, and deeply revised coastlines (revised also conceptually) would breed new lifeforms: this is among other things a route back into the vast fauna of dream animals. As a trope for the unknown, the sea in its cold black guise might also represent death, of course. Velvet Underground coyly playing in the bar in an almost abandoned cruising ship on a vast ocean. The mosaic cosmogony divides water in that above and that below the firmament. Below the fir- mament a you-relationship remains. Oxytocin has a convulsive connection. Universal Eros is measured in blood and sprouts milk. The sea corresponds with the dream as a fundament for new life. Kraken is the vagus nerve of the sea body, a tangle of tentacles between eye, heart and sex. They are all already there, and they all remain to be discovered. Guy Girard: It is certain that the global warming underway for too 6 many years already can only lead to a magnitude of changes on the sur- face of this planet: melting glaciers at the poles, rising sea levels, more frequent and more violent cyclones and storms, to speak only of marine reactions. From this out of their torpor at the bottom of the waters arise the legendary Kraken, Godzilla and some of the dragons that the ancient Chinese placed round about the Penghai Islands ... Capitalist civilization in its present stage, will of course have to transform, adapt to be able to control the many consequences of the ecological disaster in progress (giant floods, displacement, wars and epidemics, etc.). And what should temper on our part all apocalyptic enthusiasm issuing from black humor, is that this transformation could logically give way to a neo-barbarism. This would combine an environmentalist-authoritarian techno-power, probably relying on a religious revival in response to collective anxieties and panic (current religions probably will do nicely in fantasizing a growing number of faithful not just minorities like today) and a violent control of populations subjected to excessive cretinizing propaganda to justify the new order and undermine the intelligence of any criticism of it. Unless this criticism, which we would expect to be more virulent and more active than now, led to movements of class revolt, collective invention and popular reorganization in an anarchist fashion that could effectively undermine the orientation of increasingly authoritarian social relationships? Capitalism was born in feudal Europe at the time of the Great Plague - I fear it can accommodate, and therefore turn to its advantage, this gigantic oceanic Plague to come... TD Typaldos: The sea has the privilege of expanding to the Infinite, embracing the Unknown in its heart. Upon its waves, one can easily build castles full of crenelations, where Earth’s most deprived pin their hopes for a New Life. The disavowal toward the Old is imbued with saltiness and algae incubate the Flags of Tomorrow. The beings born into its damp subsoil, our allies. Monsters which hate capitalism, modern civilization (the oil slicks of multinational fuel cor- porations, which contaminated their damp habitation), miserabilism that channelled toward their country by scattered naturalistic books, forgotten to the shore by suntanned bathers, enabling the wind to dash them into 7 Tim White 8 the waves and, consequently, the monsters to read them without having the slightest idea about their content. They are monsters that bear the faces of Marx, of Che, of Bakunin. Sprouted amianthus sea shells dress their bodies by birth, while their ends are tentacles made out of moonlight rays, which, during the August nights, caress the mother Sea. As weapons, they carry fiery hammers and sickles and Molotov bombs made of iodine mixed with coral reefs. The attack on the society of the land will unfold (it has been scheduled) in cahoots with the underprivileged and the slaves of