1960s and 70s- Background in brief

Thomas Lux’s first work Memory’s Hand grenade was published in 1972. The time of 1960s and 1970s brought about drastic changes in the culture, social life and the mind set of Americans. As the level of awareness rose in America, people started to realize their rights and position in the society which brought about the counter-cultural revolution in the 1960s. The rise in social and political moments like the rise of feminism, gay rights moment, the Afro-American moment and the Hispanic moment bought about a noticeable change in the socio-political scenario of America.

The chaotic events of the 60's, including war and social change, seemed destined to continue in the 70's.  Major trends included a growing disillusionment of government, advances in civil rights, increased influence of the women's movement, a heightened concern for the environment, and increased space exploration.  Many of the "radical" ideas of the 60's gained wider acceptance in the new decade, and were mainstreamed into American life and culture.  Amid war, social realignment and presidential impeachment proceedings, American culture flourished.  Indeed, the events of the times were reflected in and became the inspiration for much of the music, literature, entertainment, and even fashion of the decade.  

As people started to become more adaptable to the modern culture, the Neo-surrealist moment began, which was a spin-off of the Surrealist moment of the 1920s. Neo-surrealist moment brought about a huge change in the people’s way of perception. This moment was more about the changing trend of art, music and culture. The initially popularized pop art of the surrealist moment was different for the neo-surrealism. The neo–surrealism was marked by an attempt to illustrate the bizarre imagery of dreams or the subconscious mind in painting and photography. It is a combined imagery of dreams and fantasies or subconscious mind visions in fine art painting, digital art graphic, and photography. The rise in the popularity of Rock genre of music with different styles branching out marks the change in people’s choice. Neo-surrealism can also be related to the “GOTHIC” lifestyle as we call it now.

Thomas Lux began publishing haunted, ironic poems that owed much to the Neo-surrealist movement in the 1970s. As we read the poems and analyse them, we will get a clear picture on the neo-surrealist style reflected by lux’s poems.

A picture depicting neo-surrealism