Surreal Fiction lecture for The Creative Arts Programme
In May 2024, Jon gave a lecture to secondary students for the Ministry of Education’s Creative Arts Programme on Surrealist Fiction and The Half Familiar.
“Fantasy is not antirational, but para-rational; not realistic but surrealistic, a heightening of reality.
In Freud’s terminology, it employs primary not secondary process thinking. It employs archetypes which, as Jung warned us, are dangerous things. Fantasy is nearer to poetry, to mysticism, and to insanity than naturalistic fiction is. It is a wilderness, and those who go there should not feel too safe.”