Do not be cross with poetry

[RiverNotch]

I think surrealism is meant to give the audience alternate, perhaps even clearer, ways of viewing things. If a surrealist piece has no effect on you, at its most basic a visceral "what the fuck?" moment, but at its best a whole "my way of thinking has been forever expanded", then the piece has failed. They're not really meant to be treated as puzzles -- to treat them as such is the work of the critic, but only when the critic needs something to sell -- but they must end up creating some, in the audience's mind, if they are to be any good.

Or if the critic is us. That's the thing, we can't passively read here. So, we have to work out the puzzle whether we like it or not.

Naw, only if the critic needs something to sell -- the currency may change, but always the buying and the selling. Here, the currency is quality, itself leading either to itself, or to better chances at getting cash/fame, for anyone seeking to publish. And out of here, well, aside from the same, there are critics who end up publishing their notes, too, because criticism is fun to read --- and speaking more generally, I'm sure few people actually appreciate art actively, or at least as actively as the threshold of definition would allow, yet they'd still be willing to support it because ultimately good art says something by forcing itself into their minds, by railing against their laziness/exhaustion and blablabla.