Nadja

Rating:
Summary: bright beauty
Review: Andre Breton was a cruel and stupid man. He was irresponsible in the fullest and truest sense of the term. If you ever decided to look up the word "selfish" in the dictionary you should not bother to be surprized when you see Breton's photograph.
But even Breton - like all of us - was capable of stumbling across a masterpiece.
Nadja is a star. Nadja is exactly the kind of girl that you would not like to bring home to mom - but you find yourself craving and loving her anyways.
Nadja is a grotesque negative print - the kind of print that drives photographers mad. She is as wild as wild gets.
Some time ago the diagnosis of "hysteria" meant something. That was back in the good old cruel days when mentally ill people were either celebrated or cursed. Nadja is worth both celebration and cursing. She is the Marilyn Monroe of surrealist objects.
She is deranged, tormented when it does not matter, full of the heat of love.

Rating:
Summary: a necessity and a work of pure genius
Review: as soon as people see breton's name on a book, they immediately feel indignation and privately exclaim, "the dictator of surrealism!" what they don't seem to realize is that, despite being a flawed and somewhat ambivalent man, he probably had more passion in his pinky than they do in their entire body. "nadja" is simply one more delightful proof of breton's genius and his infallible flair for the surreal, the mysterious, the mystical, and everything that is profoundly divergent. in this tale of intrigue and obsession he travels the streets of paris with a ghostly, clearly insane young woman who calls herself nadja, which is the russian word for hope. the most captivating parts of the novel are the bizarre and surreal conversations he has with her. even though he found her incredibly fascinating and almost an ethereal enigma, things start to turn sour between them and breton grows bored with her. at the end of the novel, nadja is put into an asylum after the police are called because of her incessant screaming and apparently incoherent behavior, some of which suggested that she was living in a world of hallucinations and irrational fears. we do know that nadja was a real woman and not by means some fictitious creation of breton's, and we also know that she came to a somewhat unfortunate end. it may be true that breton's behavior and attitude of indifference and deliberate ignorance about her truly wretched fate (she died of cancer, insane and completely alone) is indeed nothing to admire, but those who put too much emphasis on this admittedly accurate fact forget that while he may in a sense have betrayed her, he also made a truly admirable effort to make the world see nadja and those like her as no one has seen them before, and immortalized her in a book that is absolutely unforgettable and breathtakingly beautiful. breton was a profoundly hopeful and truly revolutionary figure who exhorted humanity, even while the second world war raged and reaped it's devastating results universally on all of mankind, to recognize the miraculous and wondrous nature of our very existence, however 'absurd' or meaningless some felt it to be after the horrendous events of the twentieth century. it is true that he occasionally goes over the top with his optimism, but his iron will and determination to fight 'miserabilism', the philosophical justification of human misery, at all costs can only call forth our admiration. his exaltation of the imagination as the highest of human faculties and the sole organ of man that will allow him to attain felicity seems to be verified by direct, concrete experience of life. as we grow older and we come to realize that sensual pleasure is a big part of life but essentially empty and hollow, our inner lives (hopefully) become more vivid and we end up spending more and more time there. breton knows this and wants us to cultivate it to the highest degree possible. don't be fooled by the 'anti breton' rhetoric and take a dismissive attitude toward him, because you'll be missing out on some of the most fascinating books (to my mind) ever written.

Rating:
Summary: a necessity and a work of pure genius
Review: as soon as people see breton's name on a book, they immediately feel indignation and privately exclaim, "the dictator of surrealism!" what they don't seem to realize is that, despite being a flawed and somewhat ambivalent man, he probably had more passion in his pinky than they do in their entire body. "nadja" is simply one more delightful proof of breton's genius and his infallible flair for the surreal, the mysterious, the mystical, and everything that is profoundly divergent. in this tale of intrigue and obsession he travels the streets of paris with a ghostly, clearly insane young woman who calls herself nadja, which is the russian word for hope. the most captivating parts of the novel are the bizarre and surreal conversations he has with her. even though he found her incredibly fascinating and almost an ethereal enigma, things start to turn sour between them and breton grows bored with her. at the end of the novel, nadja is put into an asylum after the police are called because of her incessant screaming and apparently incoherent behavior, some of which suggested that she was living in a world of hallucinations and irrational fears. we do know that nadja was a real woman and not by means some fictitious creation of breton's, and we also know that she came to a somewhat unfortunate end. it may be true that breton's behavior and attitude of indifference and deliberate ignorance about her truly wretched fate (she died of cancer, insane and completely alone) is indeed nothing to admire, but those who put too much emphasis on this admittedly accurate fact forget that while he may in a sense have betrayed her, he also made a truly admirable effort to make the world see nadja and those like her as no one has seen them before, and immortalized her in a book that is absolutely unforgettable and breathtakingly beautiful. breton was a profoundly hopeful and truly revolutionary figure who exhorted humanity, even while the second world war raged and reaped it's devastating results universally on all of mankind, to recognize the miraculous and wondrous nature of our very existence, however 'absurd' or meaningless some felt it to be after the horrendous events of the twentieth century. it is true that he occasionally goes over the top with his optimism, but his iron will and determination to fight 'miserabilism', the philosophical justification of human misery, at all costs can only call forth our admiration. his exaltation of the imagination as the highest of human faculties and the sole organ of man that will allow him to attain felicity seems to be verified by direct, concrete experience of life. as we grow older and we come to realize that sensual pleasure is a big part of life but essentially empty and hollow, our inner lives (hopefully) become more vivid and we end up spending more and more time there. breton knows this and wants us to cultivate it to the highest degree possible. don't be fooled by the 'anti breton' rhetoric and take a dismissive attitude toward him, because you'll be missing out on some of the most fascinating books (to my mind) ever written.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most intriguing novels I've ever read
Review: Nadja has far more to offer than just a simple love story. Superficially it is an account of Breton's wandering through the streets of 1920s Paris with his eponymous mad heroine. Paris becomes a magical, fluid reality, peopled with sphinxes and shaped by extraordinary events and coincidences. But dig deeper and you will find a rewarding, if sometimes complex, commentary on time, space, memory and the city. Bearing in mind Breton's interest in psychoanalysis and Marxist revolution (in Nadja he even tells us of his purchase of Trotsky's latest work from the Humanite bookstore), the novel may be read as a conscious subversion of bourgeois conventions. Everything in Nadja, from the narrative to the intriguing photographs supplied by various surrealist photographers such as J.A. Boiffard, intervenes to challenge and disrupt conventional reality and the status quo. It seems to me that Nadja is all about the creation of alternative realities, a sur-reality. Some would call this Breton's form of escapism from the harsh realities of post-world-war Paris in the era of high capitalism, but Breton's surreal Paris always carries the promise of revolution and change. Nadja is a work that can be enjoyed on so many levels, and is definitely worth re-reading.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most intriguing novels I've ever read
Review: Nadja is one of Breton's best works in the way that it portrays the male/female relationship within the surrealist movement. Nadja is both a source of entertainment and enlightenment for Breton, though I saw her more as another way of objectifying the female figure in surrealist work. I loved the description and concentration on Nadja's character. On the other hand, the first several chapters of the book are almost cumbersome to all who want to get into the 'meat' of the text (I found them interesting, but some of my colleagues didn't). One thing that I must say about this work is that I don't believe that it functions as a love story, though many people that review the text feel that it does. Instead, I see it more as an interesting snapshot of relationship issues (in a surreal light) but not necessarily love issues. Another masterful work by the leader of surrealism.

Rating:
Summary: Very insightful
Review: Nadja is one of Breton's best works in the way that it portrays the male/female relationship within the surrealist movement. Nadja is both a source of entertainment and enlightenment for Breton, though I saw her more as another way of objectifying the female figure in surrealist work. I loved the description and concentration on Nadja's character. On the other hand, the first several chapters of the book are almost cumbersome to all who want to get into the 'meat' of the text (I found them interesting, but some of my colleagues didn't). One thing that I must say about this work is that I don't believe that it functions as a love story, though many people that review the text feel that it does. Instead, I see it more as an interesting snapshot of relationship issues (in a surreal light) but not necessarily love issues. Another masterful work by the leader of surrealism.

Rating:
Summary: artists and words
Review: That Breton was an innovative designer and artist and poet is well appreciated but this book shows him to have been a fine writer as well. It also shows how a member of a radical group of artists can be driven by the same passions that probably afflict all of us during our lives. This passion of Breton's is extraordinary in its own way but I suspect we all have these seemingly unusual encounters in our lives. It takes a creative artist such as Breton to bring it to life. But in some ways he only brings it half to life. While he does have a fascination with 'Nadja' - the name being the first part of the Russian word for hope - his wife remains firmly in the background and not withheld, and yet her involvement is completely untold, even unspeculated on. What type of relationship Breton and his wife had we can only speculate about. In the end this is quite a sad story, but then I suspect most of the passions we all feel for the 'extras' in our own lives are inevitably tinged with sadness and unfulfilment. So for me, Breton has captured something here that is quite magical.

Rating:
Summary: artists and words
Review: That Breton was an innovative designer and artist and poet is well appreciated but this book shows him to have been a fine writer as well. It also shows how a member of a radical group of artists can be driven by the same passions that probably afflict all of us during our lives. This passion of Breton's is extraordinary in its own way but I suspect we all have these seemingly unusual encounters in our lives. It takes a creative artist such as Breton to bring it to life. But in some ways he only brings it half to life. While he does have a fascination with 'Nadja' - the name being the first part of the Russian word for hope - his wife remains firmly in the background and not withheld, and yet her involvement is completely untold, even unspeculated on. What type of relationship Breton and his wife had we can only speculate about. In the end this is quite a sad story, but then I suspect most of the passions we all feel for the 'extras' in our own lives are inevitably tinged with sadness and unfulfilment. So for me, Breton has captured something here that is quite magical.

Rating:
Summary: How did you get here? Where are you going?
Review: The concept of rating does not apply to this book.. to Nadja. Hence, the neutral "3 stars". How do people come to read this book? Is it out of necessity, as in studying french literature? I guess it doesn't matter.

Breton: "Pope of surrealism"; psychologist; culturally tied to theater, literature, fine art, and political movements; intellectual... elite.

This book is in two parts. The first is automatic writing, meandering through cultural references, Parisien momunents and streets, and famous persons of his era. Its exercise is in hommage of his precursors (ie Rimbaud, Jung) and is scarcely cohesive. The second (starting at about the 70th page) is the portrayal of the ellusive "Nadja", which "feels" more like a novel (but not quite) as Breton and Nadja float through Paris, looking at a restaurant menu here, a fountain there. The importance may lie in Nadja's surreal portrayal... her dialogue (broken phrases, observations) is enigmatic.. She is an oracle, a ghost, an undefined aesthetic.

I've seen teaching guides that advise leading students through the later pages of Nadja and only then return to the beginning .. I can see that as good advice to understand those first pages.

Why would anyone want to read this book? I mean, surrealism is dead and buried (despite their distant protests). But it existed once.. it was during the writing of Nadja a virile and auspicious movement... squarely demonstrated --or reported-- as an art --a literary -- form in this book... Is there any value found here other than landmark... Is there any perennial human wisdom here?

Nadja is not "necessarily" relevant today due to our distance from its culturally and politically rooted intentions.. It purely depends on the reader's knowledge of what Breton was trying to achieve here... and now, nearly eighty years later, the reader is not merely culturally challenged.. So reading it alongside a couple of essays... maybe getting some background info on Breton as well.. a little bio on the net, perhaps, might "help".

But once the answer is found.... and how did you get here, and where are you going ....Once the pregnant artifices of this work are consummed, assimilated, rendered to ash.. the lingering ghost of Nadja remains... and its affects are... .

Rating:
Summary: How did you get here? Where are you going?
Review: The concept of rating does not apply to this book.. to Nadja. Hence, the neutral "3 stars". How do people come to read this book? Is it out of necessity, as in studying french literature? I guess it doesn't matter.

Breton: "Pope of surrealism"; psychologist; culturally tied to theater, literature, fine art, and political movements; intellectual... elite.

This book is in two parts. The first is automatic writing, meandering through cultural references, Parisien momunents and streets, and famous persons of his era. Its exercise is in hommage of his precursors (ie Rimbaud, Jung) and is scarcely cohesive. The second (starting at about the 70th page) is the portrayal of the ellusive "Nadja", which "feels" more like a novel (but not quite) as Breton and Nadja float through Paris, looking at a restaurant menu here, a fountain there. The importance may lie in Nadja's surreal portrayal... her dialogue (broken phrases, observations) is enigmatic.. She is an oracle, a ghost, an undefined aesthetic.

I've seen teaching guides that advise leading students through the later pages of Nadja and only then return to the beginning .. I can see that as good advice to understand those first pages.

Why would anyone want to read this book? I mean, surrealism is dead and buried (despite their distant protests). But it existed once.. it was during the writing of Nadja a virile and auspicious movement... squarely demonstrated --or reported-- as an art --a literary -- form in this book... Is there any value found here other than landmark... Is there any perennial human wisdom here?

Nadja is not "necessarily" relevant today due to our distance from its culturally and politically rooted intentions.. It purely depends on the reader's knowledge of what Breton was trying to achieve here... and now, nearly eighty years later, the reader is not merely culturally challenged.. So reading it alongside a couple of essays... maybe getting some background info on Breton as well.. a little bio on the net, perhaps, might "help".

But once the answer is found.... and how did you get here, and where are you going ....Once the pregnant artifices of this work are consummed, assimilated, rendered to ash.. the lingering ghost of Nadja remains... and its affects are... .