Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon I found to be very creative and abstract. It was difficult for me to logistically understand the plot and justify/recognize what and why things were happening in the book. That said, I thought it was a fun read because of the visuals given by Aragon. It was also fairly descriptive and edgy.

Aragon constructed a piece grasping the concepts of  surrealism. The topic of God, logic, greater powers and self/beauty are all tied into his writing. In regards to this, his thoughts on reality and how we function as humans in society really stuck out to me. You can tell through his writings that he has a lot of depth to his thoughts and makes his readers engaged in analyzing these same questions within himself. I really like when authors provoke ideas or topics that makes them think but also makes you think deeply as well. Especially in this case, when a lot of his points lead to the suggestion that reality and society should be taken so seriously in a sense and how all these things like God or sense of self and such, can allude to this idea that nothing needs to make sense. Nothing has to make sense or has to mean anything, it can just be what it is. People today are so quick to attach meaning to everything which can be a good thing, but it can also lead to genuine pain over something that doesn’t have to be painful. 

I found his visuals of women very interesting and a bit disturbing. Countless times he is caught rambling about blondes, hair and women’s bodies. Something that he did say that caught my eye was; “It is the merest change that these films never depict a woman who suddenly catches sight of a man, goes straight to him … Such films would have no success at all, they would smack too much fiction” (pg.55). I think this line in relation to the submissive portrayal of the ‘ideal’ woman is really telling. We can see that 100 years ago, male dominance, especially in a sensual manner, was the only ‘acceptable’ way to form any type of relationship. This also alludes to the idea that women would never make the first move and always need to be pursued instead of pursuing. In comparison to today, although I think women have a lot more levelled equality in regards to men, this is still a normative issue today. But it led me to think, is it human nature to want to be pursued rather than pursue someone? As a woman, wouldn’t you rather be pursued than make the first move? If it wasn’t for societal pressures, would men rather be pursued than make the first move? Is this concept necessarily a bad ‘norm’ for women?