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Preface: Theater and Culture

• In the preface to The Theater and its Double, Artaud asserts that culture is as essential as feeding when it comes to sustaining human life.

• He compares culture to civilization, concluding that they are but two words to designate a single action.

• Culture should be a way to both understand and practice life itself, merging instead of separating both functions.

• Culture should be a way to extract life out of the cultural objects it provides.
• The objects should be to the civilized man what totems were to primitive civilizations, and as totems, there are forces that are beyond the simple cultural objects that we enjoy statically.

• These forces are almost magical and should be a source into which we can tap, much like the Mexicans gather their "Manas" out of totemic objects.

• Artaud asserts that contrary to popular usage, art and culture do not...

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