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"Nadja" by Andre Breton

Back Cover

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I missed out on Nadja in high school, which was more or less in the program tray of letters in French or just about time, except in the window like me directly concerned. Fortunately, the copy I had on hand is an edition for children, with backrest and illustrations. The record proved unavoidable, and almost more interesting than the text itself.

What happens in Nadja is pretty hard to say: the narrator, André Breton himself, crosses the street one day a strange young woman, who has renamed itself Nadja. He discusses, they spend all their time together during a few weeks hanging out in Paris by exchanging drawings, and then she was interned in a psychiatric hospital, and move on.

must go bravely to finish the thing without being forced. Breton was strongly opposed to a lot of traditional narrative techniques, as the illusion of separation between the author and the narrator, the concept of characters, basically build a "story". The text then walk through evocation, association of ideas and jumps of the rooster to the donkey, and the only thread about Nadja driver itself, which says replied, when asked to introduce themselves, the type of things "I am the wandering soul. "The project

surreal Nadja in particular are quite painful to my ears. The posture of Breton is very dated, and today seems quite naive. Believe in the possibility to dispense with reason, to overcome any short-reach creating a "pure" seems both childish and slightly repulsive.

And the brutality, the significance of the break surreal are difficult to measure for the man today, after the readymade, the Pop Art and lobster inflatable Jeff Koons.

But my editing folder tells me we should keep in mind the horrible stuffy atmosphere of the 1920s and their mean-spirited attempt to return to normal after the Great War, and thus put into perspective the current rage Breton and the incredible fecundity of his group. A vanguard hundred years old, you think! It's hard to take seriously.

Nadja I think is more interesting for its importance in the history of art and ideas, as for the quality entertainment that is available.

must therefore be read alongside, and before and after, we must seek Dada and Aragon and then Oulipians and give a little time in our lives convulsions * in art, design, shape . Not easy!

fairly funny, the peer of Breton has spent a whole lot of time to lay flowers, then shouted down each other, fall passionately in love with the mistress / wife of another and trigger disputes and intellectual flamboyant super petty disputes in the public square. For an overview, read the Third Manifesto of Surrealism by Robert Desnos who falter Breton until almost the color of his socks.

* The CAPS are inspired by Breton, for those who have read the book

Read

Yes and no.

Yes if you want a little Kultur in good philistine educated, and better understand how the artistic thought has evolved in the twentieth century.

Not if you're in the metro / train / sleigh and want to kill time. This is not a novel or an essay, and the weird format does not allow the concentration of purring. To go fast, it could damn you drunk.