Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith A down and dirty survey of the Surrealist movement written in 1970 by the leading Situationist theorist of the time. Locating Surrealism’s ‘original sin’ in its ideological nature, Vaneigem clearly identifies the ‘radioactive fragment of radicalism’ that the movement never quite managed to shed, and provides an unequivocal answer to the question ‘What was alive and what was dead in Surrealism?’ The Situationists attitudes both positive and negative, towards their Surrealist predecessors are revealed in full.