Well Bottom Blues

Surrealism and synchronicity: I happened onto Andre Breton’s Nadja while trying to find a new book on my Kindle. My Kindly suggestions are usually overwhelmed by my partner’s voracious appetite for light reading. Fortunately my decision to drive into László Krasznahorkai has led to other interesting books.

I noted in the book’s description that it influenced Julio Cortázar, whose Hopscotch is a favorite so of course I bought Nadja.

I found it on Oct. 4, the date Breton reports meeting Nadja. Reading the introduction it immediately occured to me that the central character Nadja must have certainly inspired Cortázar’s La Maga and that Breton’s own unorthodox life likely informed the character Olivier’s time in Paris.

Maybe I should have gone into the academy instead of journalism almost 50 years ago so I might find myself around people with whom to have this conversation instead of posting this on my obscure blog. I have been on the Internet since the late 1980s, and I suspect there must be a Usenet group or some successor like Reddit where I might find people to discuss this with.