Nadja: A soul in limbo

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André Breton’s Nadja was on interesting take on this part of his life that included this relationship. As he told the recollection, I felt as if I was metaphorically holding his hand through the journey of unpacking his encounters with Nadja. I could really feel the tangible distance he had with these memories as he wrote them almost in a dreamlike manner. The first part of the book took several tries to read and some parts I almost gave up on understanding. However, I appreciated his notion of the “chance encounter”. I too can’t help but link random occurrences in my life to others, making connections that serve as a sign that life is trying to teach me a lesson. He always saw little instances such as meeting a women who recites her favourite poem to him. For me I believe this must have been an important instance for him to want to mention in the first place. Additionally I liked his reference to himself as a ghost, it really is emphasised by his writing style. I as the reader can see that he sees himself as almost a background character, letting other take the lime light. I feel this connection also brings back the first page in which he says that who he is a reflection of whom he haunts. I think this is a beautiful analogy as it isn’t necessarily a negative thing to “haunt” someone but rather I see it as the impression we leave with a person is who we are in their mind. Someone from my childhood will never know the person I am now and will always compare me to the person they knew no matter how long in the past it was. Moving on to part two, the detailed almost dream like narrations describing his relationship with Nadja pulled at my attention. The quote that she says in response to his inquiring question of who she is: “I am a soul in limbo”. This quote stopped me to reflect on what she may have meant in that instance. For me it was as if she was describing the uncertainty that is her life as she describes when asked where she will eat lunch she says basically wherever life will take her. I wonder if that is a beautiful life to live or rather a life with no direction and where I would situate myself on the scale of living a life in “limbo”. My question for the class is where do you see yourself if being in a state of limbo was a scale?

Combray: What is your Steeple?

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Marcel Proust meticulously described the town of Combray and I maybe loved it. While his drawn out monologues took several tries to decipher, the beauty he found in life’s simplicities helped me immerse myself into his childhood home. I’m not sure if any of you also relate but I found myself at times having to read the sentences out loud to follow Proust’s intricate train of thought. While at times his roaming of descriptions confused me, I found myself appreciating his style of writing because I too find it difficult to contain my thoughts within the parameters of a standard sentence. I appreciated that the novel’s structure seemed to follow his train of thought and that he would then elaborate on an instance that would be brought to light.

Even as Marcel’s thoughts roamed freely, I couldn’t help but notice the symbolisms of constants in his childhood town. My favorite, perhaps, was the Church steeple that stood tall in Combray indicating a point of reference for little Marcel. He describes that throughout time the Church steeple lasted and even while barely visible was a beacon of comfort, always resting somewhere between Combray’s skyline. Why also the steeple stuck out to me was that perhaps Proust felt a connection to it because his grandmother interpreted the steeple as being distinct, which to her was highly valued. For me I feel that a constant in my life is the mountains that encompass us here in British Columbia. I doubt I would feel truly at home in a place without seeing the familiar mountain peaks.  

As well, his reference to pastries, which I thought was very French of him to consistently mention different pastries and how they affected his livelihood. I know the main takeaway was the madeleine making him reminisce of the time his aunt had given him it with his tea, but what stood out to me was the way pastries were used as a means to create space for child Proust. Whether it be when his uncle offered him a marzipan cake or his family in Combray taking turns on buying the brioche bread, I felt Proust used pastries to indicate that space has been made. His family’s tradition of bringing pastries resonated with my own in which we use our traditional desserts to end a dinner party on a sweet note. And like him these desserts would bring me back instead of a sip of tea. For me it is the aromatic taste of cardamom in “firni” , a pudding dessert, that is a constant in my family gatherings. 

A question I have for the class is what is your steeple? What is something (or someone) that through time has been a constant in your life, keeping you grounded?

Intro to me

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Hi all welcome to my blog! My name is Farahnaz and I am a third year student studying International Relations. I will be honest I definitely thought that this class would be all about the world of romance in a black and white sense, so when the professor said it would be more complex I had second thoughts. However, I’m still here and hope to expand my views of what a romance studies course ought to be. What I appreciate about romance and emotive writing in general is that the authors emotions can be felt beyond the paper that we hold and these emotions validate what we sometimes as humans feel we must contain. I appreciate how real the authors feelings are expressed especially intertwined by anecdotes of appreciating small life occurrences. Some more about me is that I am the biggest cat person even though I pretend not to be. I admire how they mind their own and don’t beg for attention (no offence to dogs and dog people).

I expect that this course will challenge me and bring me back to some what gruelling days of elementary school and reading contents. However I hope this time around I will take the time to enjoy what I am reading instead of pushing to speed through the pages. Further from the actual challenge of reading a book a week, I look forward to having an excuse to read during school. It has been a while since I’ve been able to dedicate enough time to read novels. I expect that this course will teach me about the different mechanisms that writers in the romance genre use to portray their message. Other then that I really don’t have too many expectations, I hope I can learn a lot and expand my knowledge. In terms of the first lecture what stuck out to me was that some of the books we will be reading are translations. I find it interesting that I may have a completely different interpretation from what the author intended because of certain language phrases that are difficult to translate. But that difference in interpretation is just a consequence of reading in general and everyone has a unique perception of what we read.

One question I have for the rest of the class that they can answer is that if they were a character in a book what would you be famous/trademarked for?