In class we discussed briefly about the obscure images that appear often throughout the book, "Nadja". My question is whether you felt the pictures either aided you in understanding the context of the story, or did it just cause you more confusion?
I found the pictures to be somewhat helpful. Especially where, for example, the narrator says he'll arrive at a certain place, it was helpful to see a picture of it since I had never heard of some of the places before. However, I thought the placement of the pictures was distracting. The book is confusing enough as it is, and then I would read and get distracted by the image and get more confused when trying to continue the sentence on the following page. I wish the pictures had been smaller and the text was wrapped around them. This way, the picture could be on the same page as the thing being referenced. I would not have to flip back to remember what the picture was related to and forget what was happening in the place I had left off.
I've never read anything like Nadja, and so far it is a very confusing text. It is nonconventional and the images that Breton scatters throughout the text contribute to this. As for their function within the text, I have not yet been able to understand. They help to develop an image in my head about what a particular thing, or setting, that is mentioned is, but I remain confused about the enigmatic quality that some of them had. In my reading of the text, though, I found that I did not spend much time thinking about them or trying to analyze them. This is because I think it is very much a non-visual text that requires imaginative thinking to attempt understand it, rather than analytical thinking that some might use in trying to decipher the images. So, I resigned myself from trying to dive too deep into figuring them out, and I find that I instead often just quickly look at them to reference something that the text is talking about, like a setting.
The images in Nadja were quite intriguing to me. Other than the fact that I simply liked looking at them, like Rachel, I found some of them helpful in contextualising the story, especially historically so, and I enjoyed seeing pictures of early twentieth century Paris as it would have looked back then. I'm also interested in the way other media, as it were, like photographs or the epistolary genre, works in literature and influences our reading of a text: on the one hand, the photographs Breton provides seem to ground his story in a sense of reality and a more linear fashion were it seems so unreal, and also seem to authenticate the plot. Andre's experiences seem more legitimate to us as readers because we have a compilation of photographs and images that would suggest proof, which is especially interesting to me because the story is supposedly based on Breton's actual interactions with the woman who inspired the character of Nadja.
On the other hand, images, and particularly photographs, are deceiving. We perceive them as being indicative of the truth -- but while we value images as being tangible proof of something's existence or occurrence, we simultaneously mislead ourselves in erroneously believing that images can't be constructed entirely, or that they are not carefully selected. Breton's images may suggest validity and a sense of realism, but all of them were likely deliberated upon and chosen with specific things in mind. In images, we really only see as much as we allow ourselves or want to see. Indeed, I wonder whether these images have anything to do with the book's final sentence.
As a reader, I enjoy visualizing people and places in my own head. For example I am that person who gets disappointed when a movie is made about a book I read and the characters don't look the way I imagined them. With this book, I felt that way but not as much as usual because of the confusion that came along with it. I found the pictures to add elements to the book to make it even more obscure than it was already. Such as the drawings toward the ending. I also think they could have had to do with the haunting theme mentioned in the first paragraph. This is because many of them came after they were mentioned in the book. Perhaps this was the author's way of exemplifying the haunting feeling of things reappearing and distracting you. Could it have been that the author wanted to haunt the readers?
As a reader, I enjoy visualizing people and places in my own head. For example I am that person who gets disappointed when a movie is made about a book I read and the characters don't look the way I imagined them. With this book, I felt that way but not as much as usual because of the confusion that came along with it. I found the pictures to add elements to the book to make it even more obscure than it was already. Such as the drawings toward the ending. I also think they could have had to do with the haunting theme mentioned in the first paragraph. This is because many of them came after they were mentioned in the book. Perhaps this was the author's way of exemplifying the haunting feeling of things reappearing and distracting you. Could it have been that the author wanted to haunt the readers?
I found the pictures to be somewhat helpful. Especially where, for example, the narrator says he'll arrive at a certain place, it was helpful to see a picture of it since I had never heard of some of the places before. However, I thought the placement of the pictures was distracting. The book is confusing enough as it is, and then I would read and get distracted by the image and get more confused when trying to continue the sentence on the following page. I wish the pictures had been smaller and the text was wrapped around them. This way, the picture could be on the same page as the thing being referenced. I would not have to flip back to remember what the picture was related to and forget what was happening in the place I had left off.
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ReplyDeleteI've never read anything like Nadja, and so far it is a very confusing text. It is nonconventional and the images that Breton scatters throughout the text contribute to this. As for their function within the text, I have not yet been able to understand. They help to develop an image in my head about what a particular thing, or setting, that is mentioned is, but I remain confused about the enigmatic quality that some of them had. In my reading of the text, though, I found that I did not spend much time thinking about them or trying to analyze them. This is because I think it is very much a non-visual text that requires imaginative thinking to attempt understand it, rather than analytical thinking that some might use in trying to decipher the images. So, I resigned myself from trying to dive too deep into figuring them out, and I find that I instead often just quickly look at them to reference something that the text is talking about, like a setting.
ReplyDeleteThe images in Nadja were quite intriguing to me. Other than the fact that I simply liked looking at them, like Rachel, I found some of them helpful in contextualising the story, especially historically so, and I enjoyed seeing pictures of early twentieth century Paris as it would have looked back then. I'm also interested in the way other media, as it were, like photographs or the epistolary genre, works in literature and influences our reading of a text: on the one hand, the photographs Breton provides seem to ground his story in a sense of reality and a more linear fashion were it seems so unreal, and also seem to authenticate the plot. Andre's experiences seem more legitimate to us as readers because we have a compilation of photographs and images that would suggest proof, which is especially interesting to me because the story is supposedly based on Breton's actual interactions with the woman who inspired the character of Nadja.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, images, and particularly photographs, are deceiving. We perceive them as being indicative of the truth -- but while we value images as being tangible proof of something's existence or occurrence, we simultaneously mislead ourselves in erroneously believing that images can't be constructed entirely, or that they are not carefully selected. Breton's images may suggest validity and a sense of realism, but all of them were likely deliberated upon and chosen with specific things in mind. In images, we really only see as much as we allow ourselves or want to see. Indeed, I wonder whether these images have anything to do with the book's final sentence.
As a reader, I enjoy visualizing people and places in my own head. For example I am that person who gets disappointed when a movie is made about a book I read and the characters don't look the way I imagined them. With this book, I felt that way but not as much as usual because of the confusion that came along with it. I found the pictures to add elements to the book to make it even more obscure than it was already. Such as the drawings toward the ending. I also think they could have had to do with the haunting theme mentioned in the first paragraph. This is because many of them came after they were mentioned in the book. Perhaps this was the author's way of exemplifying the haunting feeling of things reappearing and distracting you. Could it have been that the author wanted to haunt the readers?
ReplyDeleteAs a reader, I enjoy visualizing people and places in my own head. For example I am that person who gets disappointed when a movie is made about a book I read and the characters don't look the way I imagined them. With this book, I felt that way but not as much as usual because of the confusion that came along with it. I found the pictures to add elements to the book to make it even more obscure than it was already. Such as the drawings toward the ending. I also think they could have had to do with the haunting theme mentioned in the first paragraph. This is because many of them came after they were mentioned in the book. Perhaps this was the author's way of exemplifying the haunting feeling of things reappearing and distracting you. Could it have been that the author wanted to haunt the readers?
ReplyDelete