In all honesty, I have no idea what happened in this story, plot-wise, but I think that was the point? Nevertheless, I found this to be a very thought-provoking read, with several lines sticking out as significant to me. 

Aragon’s engagement within the surrealist movement is made apparently evident through this nonconforming novel that heavily focuses on Aragon’s conceptions of reality and society and this critical narrative about rationalism was honestly refreshing to me. Literature that reminds you of the chaos of our existence and our insignificance in the grand scheme of things is wildly comforting to me. Aragon forced me to question reality, imagination, and society and to think about thinking, and I am not mad about it because he is right; humanity is illogical and despite our attempts to fit it within the constraints of logic, there are some things that we cannot think or explain away. It was refreshing to read a book that is not trying to rationalize our world, but instead reminds me that essentially, nothing is real, which can be a comforting thought for someone who tends to overthink! 

The use of personification about the mental faculties and features of our world, such as boredom on pages 128/129; imagination, will, and sense on pages 64-68; and the night on page 141, reflects the surrealist movement’s attempts to blur the lines between the illogic and the logic. While this novel was written nearly 100 years ago, I would argue it finds just as much relevance when discussing society today. For example, the line, “They do gymnastics to keep slim, but what exercises would help to put back the colour in their lives?” (pg 55) is a powerful line that highlights to me the arbitrariness we place on our everyday lives. We try to fit into society’s constructs about what is desirable, which just makes us miserable. This line serves as an important reminder to do what brings ‘colour’ to our lives. There are so many more lines that stood out to me, for example, “man has delegated his activity to the machines” (pg 118) or “in trying to free himself from matter he has become the prisoner of the properties of matter” (pg 9) because they are still relevant, if not more relevant, about our postmodern society today. 

“Men pass their lives in the midst of magic precipices without even opening their eyes” (pg 177). Rationalism and reason are so engrained in our society these days and this book has reminded me that we know nothing and to question everything. In short, it has sent me into a slight existential crisis :). 

I’ll end this post with my question of the week: Do you agree that this novel applies to our current society and how so?