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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.
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