Nadja, a quicker read for me than Combray was captivating and I found myself having a hard time putting the book down. The dream like state of the surrealism of this book kept me on my toes and forced me during time to rethink what Breton was saying.
A lot of the questions Jon asks about the book have to appropriately do with Nadja and her relationship with Breton. When I first read this book and having watched the lecture I have a position that entangles current archetypes of female characters to the character of Nadja.
In recent years, notably in the early 2010s we have seen a sudden uprise in the trope of the “manic pixie dream girl,” this notion of a woman so enticing to the main character that makes them see a new way of life through their “quirky” perspectives and care free attitude. This care free attitude and quirky personally usually have to do with underlying mental issues that the female character deals with to their detriment and usually the male main character fails to recognized. Even just upon reading Bretons initial account of meeting Nadja, I knew she would play into this archetype.
We as readers can infer that the reason why Breton is so attracted to Nadja and starts this affair with her is that he feels as though there’s something so ethereal about her. As Jon points out himself in the lecture, when Breton first sees Nadja he perceives her as something unearthly on a very regular Parisian street. From how Breton describes her we as the reader do not think of her as anything out of the ordinary but then he starts to go into this state of romanticizing her and her actions of madness as something that makes him feel alive. This is a very common trope for the main character who is enticed by the manic pixie dream girl.
An important thing to highlight about Breton is how he romanticizes Nadja’s suffering and starts acting like a saviour. He starts to imagine Nadja to be as infatuated with him as he is her. As he further descends into madness instead of helping her he starts enabling a lot of the mental issues she deals with and in turn starts descending into it himself. This is a twist to what usually the manic pixie dream girl trope is and I believe it is a good one. I believe Breton in losing Nadja starts to understand the madness of his short lived affair. I understand Breton thought that he could find some sort of proliferation in Nadja but I personally dont believe he could have ever. I believe that instead of Breton finding anything useful about himself he just ruined Nadja and carried on with his life.
My question for you is do you believe Breton could have found any sense of self in Nadja initially or do you believe this affair just made him worse off?
Heh, yes, I am persuaded by the “manic pixie dream girl” argument–though I wasn’t very familiar with the phrase before. “I knew she would play into this archetype.” But to be fair (??), perhaps here Breton’s inventing it, not simply playing into it? Sidenote: it might be interesting to try and construct a history of this archetype. My understanding (from Wikipedia! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manic_Pixie_Dream_Girl) is that the term isn’t invented until 2007. But this is surely a precursor, as you say.
When reading Breton’s first encounter with Nadja, I too immediately thought of the “manic pixie dream girl” troupe haha! The way he described his infatuation for her and how he saw her made me think of Summer from “500 Days of Summer” (someone who also aligns well with this troupe). To answer your question, I believe that Breton’s encounters with Nadja probably made him “worse off” in the sense that her presence likely altered and complicated his life, and perhaps made him more unhappy or confused after she was put into the asylum. However, it is hard to say if in the long run it made him better or worse off- as there is no timeline in which this did not occur.
I love the idea of Nadja being a manic pixie dream girl because she really is. I think that Breton is better after his affair with Nadja as a writer, he found his style through his encounter with her in my opinion. As a person, however I think he is “worse off” as he literally cheated on his wife with her.
You describing Nadja as a “manic pixie dream girl” is so on point, I totally agree!
It’s funny, I was reading my book aloud with my girlfriend in the same room, and she was like, “So Nadja is just a manic pixie dream girl,” and at first I had no idea what she meant, and had to do some research of my own. Seeing your post made me laugh aloud, and I knew I had to comment. Loved reading your thoughts on the book!