{"id":17,"date":"2022-01-23T20:11:21","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T04:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/?p=17"},"modified":"2022-01-23T20:11:21","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T04:11:21","slug":"week-3-aragon-paris-peasant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/2022\/01\/23\/week-3-aragon-paris-peasant\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 3 – Aragon, “Paris Peasant”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading Aragon\u2019s Paris Peasant <\/em>felt like a brain workout at one hand, and an imaginary escape at another. With a conventional bias, I struggled to find the \u201cplot\u201d of the story, like many of my peers reading this book. I constantly searched for a plot; however, in the process of doing so, I realized that I was characterizing the idea of a \u201cplot\u201d. I realized that I shouldn\u2019t be looking for something in the book, but to absorb whatever the book was throwing at me. In this way, Aragon\u2019s way of writing felt quite similar to Proust\u2019s Combray<\/em>; both authors reflect on memories associated with specific areas. However, whereas Proust focused on conveying the everyday experiences the narrator had with his family, at least in the first section of the chapter, Aragon focuses on his particular thoughts and opinions that were derived in the Passage de l\u2019Opera. For example, after giving a great description of the Passage de l\u2019Opera, Aragon quickly turns what specific thought he had regarding Hotel de Monte-Carlo, Librarie Rey, the passage\u2019s concierge, Caf\u00e9 du Petit Grillon, etc. It was particularly interesting to read the section about exportation, especially because Aragon inserted pictures of authentic signs and newspaper articles for reference. This whole section about exportation, from page 24 to 32, even seemed like a story in itself. Aragon\u2019s description of the struggles faced by whom he called \u201ctomorrow\u2019s victims of exportation\u201d really engaged me in the section of the book, and almost brought out a sympathetic emotion.<\/p>\n

Aragon\u2019s attitude, especially in the first pages of the book, also showed similarities to Proust. Particularly, this quote grabbed my attention:<\/p>\n

\u201cHumanity\u2019s stupid rationalism contains an unimaginably large element of materialism. This fear of error which everything recalls to me at every moment of the flight of my ideas, this mania for control, makes man prefer reason\u2019s imagination to the imagination of the senses\u201d (9). <\/em><\/p>\n

This quote showed Aragon\u2019s perspective to focus on his senses and be limitless in his imagination; it showed his interesting perspective that errors, especially those that are caused by sensual imagination, can provide a unique insight that nothing else than itself could provide. Perhaps this attitude can be described as \u201cmodernistic\u201d; it challenges conventional habits and beliefs suggests a new approach. Much as his writing style being unlike a traditional novel, his thoughts seem very unique and new as well. Aragon\u2019s focus on sensuality is further shown when he writes about hairdressers and sensual pleasures (44-45). Lastly, starting with \u201cA Feeling for Nature at the Buttes-Chaumont\u201d, Aragon\u2019s thoughts seem to deepen, with heavier ideas of surrealism and temporality are shown.<\/p>\n

To finish my blog, I would like to end with a question:<\/strong> What kind of attitude do you think Aragon has toward modernism? Does Aragon seem hopeful for the new changes modernism can bring? Does he seem to be against modernity, as it poses a risk that \u201cwhat was known until today could be completely gone tomorrow?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Aragon\u2019s Paris Peasant felt like a brain workout at one hand, and an imaginary escape at another. With a conventional bias, I struggled to find the \u201cplot\u201d of the story, like many of my peers reading this book. I constantly searched for a plot; however, in the process of doing so, I realized that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89812,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[16,6,11,15,2,13,14],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aragon","tag-aragon","tag-literature","tag-modernism","tag-mythology","tag-rmst202","tag-surrealism","tag-temporality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmst202blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}