Nadja by Breton is a fever dream. I was a few pages into the lecture transcription and stopped. The lecture provided too many answers to my questions; I want to try and elaborate a bit on my own first.
This is my first time reading a surrealism book. As usual, I avoid learning about the context and background of the author to get a fresh first hand experience. Nadja reads like a diary, soon I realize that the story might be based on real life events and become concerned for the narrator. One thing for sure is that, Breton fell head over toes for the woman, Nadja, and he was on the brink of going mad. He was already quite vulnerable since the beginning, questioning who he is and going on a “self-preservation trip”. The photos are probably there to provide context, but I just find them eerie how there isn’t anyone on the streets.
Breton describes Nadja initially as a “young, poorly dressed woman”. What attracted him was 1. her demeanor (“she carried her head high, unlike everyone else on the sidewalk”) and 2. her eyes (Breton goes into details about her eye make up). Nadja would occasionally get these visions that prompt her to do something. Breton and her went on a trip to Saint Germain because of a vision, and grew concious of what he had been doing. Did he feel guilt for having an affair despite being married? Probably not. He brought up the analogy of “a lapdog laying on Nadja’s feet”. A lapdog, teacher’s pet, whatever you want to call it. He knew at that point he was neck deep in mud, but it’s also not too late to get out–perharps he wanted to submerge completely. Nadja’s vision reminded me of Hildegard von Bingen, a German abbess who sees visions but historians think it’s just a side effect of severe migraine.
My questions is: What made Breton and Nadja attract each other? Was Nadja using Breton to cure her loneliness?
Edit:
I have returned after completing the lecture. It confirmed some of my suspicions. Breton wanted to be like Nadja. As a leader of the surrealism movement, and as a person. I found a transcription of Breton’s lecture on surrealism. This is most likely translated from French. I thought surrealism was only a type of art/literature, but Breton actually believed that they could change the world, in sort of a cult-like way. He said, “[surrealism] provoked new states of conciousness…modified the sensibility, and taken a decisive step towards the unification of the personality, which it found threatened by an ever more profound dissociation” From my understanding after conducting a brief research, members (well, artists) who wish to participate in surrealism activities had to get into Breton’s inner circle. Back to the book. I wonder if this affair with Nadja changed Breton’s view on surrealism. Nadja was basically the final product of what he was trying to achieve. She mixed “dreams” and “reality” into her own reality. However, it was later revealed that Nadja belonged to a psych ward. She was actually crazy. What confuses me the most is how Breton wanted to ride the fine line between sane and insane but retreated because he got scared (probably after the driving incident), yet he continued his surrealism movement and published this book. I would not support his movement after reading this book. I don’t understand the intensions behind writing this book. It was not useful as propaganda material.