Aragon, Ocean and Kerouac
As I read Paris Peasant, and delved deeper into the surrealist movement and its dealings with the unconscious state, my first thought was of Frank Ocean. In Paris Peasant, and surrealist works in general, images are strung together to create a surrealist and unconscious landscape from which to gain insight. Similarly to Ocean, his prose is almost a stream-of-consciousness rambling, making quick jumps and sharp imagery to dance around a scene without quite narrating it. Instead, they both focus on digging and searching for the essence of the experience which is being described. Metaphors and surreal imagery are used to cast a haunting tone to the novel, and these small issues of tone and word choice are key in order to develop a theme and experience for the reader.
I took the liberty of rearranging a particularly interesting quotation into a poetic format, to illustrate the melody and “dance” of Aragon’s translated prose.
Best of all
love thrusts up shoots where no one plants it :
how vulgarity convulses it !
it is liable
to give
sudden wanton twitches
There are maniacs possessed
by the street’s haunting memory
and only there
can they experience
the full flow
of their nature
Another artist who comes to mind is Jack Kerouac. While writing 40+ years later, he used imagery, setting and experience to flesh out ideas and insights in a similarly surreal and consciousness inspired way.
Here is a snapshot of Kerouac’s writing, again transposed to be framed as a poem.
I realized
these were all
the snapshots which our children would look at
someday with wonder
thinking their parents had lived smooth, well-ordered lives
and got up in the morning to walk proudly on the sidewalks of life
never dreaming
the raggedy madness
and riot of our actual lives,
our actual night,
the hell of it,
the senseless emptiness.
The two passages are similar in tone, and the insights they seek are similar in terms of existentialism and the human experience. Interestingly both authors are also French-speakers, though Kerouac’s work is not translated.
Questions
Are there any authors or artists who’s work Louis Aragon work makes you think of?
Has surrealism had an impact on current artists or authors you enjoy?
Aragon, Ocean and Kerouac
As I read Paris Peasant, and delved deeper into the surrealist movement and its dealings with the unconscious state, my first thought was of Frank Ocean. In Paris Peasant, and surrealist works in general, images are strung together to create a surrealist and unconscious landscape from which to gain insight. Similarly to Ocean, his prose is almost a stream-of-consciousness rambling, making quick jumps and sharp imagery to dance around a scene without quite narrating it. Instead, they both focus on digging and searching for the essence of the experience which is being described. Metaphors and surreal imagery are used to cast a haunting tone to the novel, and these small issues of tone and word choice are key in order to develop a theme and experience for the reader.
I took the liberty of rearranging a particularly interesting quotation into a poetic format, to illustrate the melody and “dance” of Aragon’s translated prose.
Best of all
love thrusts up shoots where no one plants it :
how vulgarity convulses it !
it is liable
to give
sudden wanton twitches
There are maniacs possessed
by the street’s haunting memory
and only there
can they experience
the full flow
of their nature
Another artist who comes to mind is Jack Kerouac. While writing 40+ years later, he used imagery, setting and experience to flesh out ideas and insights in a similarly surreal and consciousness inspired way.
Here is a snapshot of Kerouac’s writing, again transposed to be framed as a poem.
I realized
these were all
the snapshots which our children would look at
someday with wonder
thinking their parents had lived smooth, well-ordered lives
and got up in the morning to walk proudly on the sidewalks of life
never dreaming
the raggedy madness
and riot of our actual lives,
our actual night,
the hell of it,
the senseless emptiness.
The two passages are similar in tone, and the insights they seek are similar in terms of existentialism and the human experience. Interestingly both authors are also French-speakers, though Kerouac’s work is not translated.
Questions
Are there any authors or artists who’s work Louis Aragon work makes you think of?
Has surrealism had an impact on current artists or authors you enjoy?
I’ll be honest, when I first cracked open this book, I did not expect the start it presented me with. Perhaps I should have known from years of experience not to expect the book to immediately explain the title the author has given it however, this may be the first book that really drove home […]
While reading Paris Peasant, I was constantly trying to make sense of what was really going on. Prior to starting the novel, I thought that my ability to speak french and the title being “paris peasant” would provide me a leg up, but that was not the case. Although I am not sure of the original language this text was written in, it did not feel french. But, that may also be due to the advanced vocabulary… There is mention in this week’s video that the incomplete thoughts create suspension, however for me, it only created frustration.
At some points, small trains of thought would progress from the narrator and I would begin to think I ‘sorta’ understand what’s going on…. Then flip to the next page and I would feel completely lost again, but I think that was the point.
As a psychology major where my textbooks consist of clear topics which flow nicely from page to page, this style of writing is totally new and challenging for me. It is frustrating when reading to feel the need to understand what is happening before moving along, however that is something I’m trying to move away from as that doesn’t seem to be very useful for these texts.
While reading the first 30 pages, I had made a note that I feel as though the author is lonely in his life. He seems to always have a lot going on around him yet the background seems quiet, and his thoughts seem so loud that they overtake everything else. I enjoyed it when he said “Everything distracts me indefinitely, except for my distraction itself”. I think this signifies that at the end of the day, the world around him distracts him minimally, in comparison to his thoughts that seem to never stop.
Something else that stood out to me was that I felt the narrator was very opinionated, especially when it comes to women. Although I am aware that these are his own thoughts and not necessarily something he is saying out loud and to others, it seems as though he judges women off their bodies and their whereabouts a fair amount.
My question to the class is if anyone feels that they can relate to having this magnitude of thoughts throughout the day similar to the narrator…always thinking critically of the world around them, and taking everything not just simply how it is, but thinking deeper of its meaning and significance. Personally, this is something I do not relate to whatsoever. I feel as though my thoughts are minimal and I tend to just go with the flow.
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While reading Paris Peasant, I was constantly trying to make sense of what was really going on. Prior to starting the novel, I thought that my ability to speak french and the title being “paris peasant” would provide me a leg up, but that was not the case. Although I am not sure of the original language this text was written in, it did not feel french. But, that may also be due to the advanced vocabulary… There is mention in this week’s video that the incomplete thoughts create suspension, however for me, it only created frustration.
At some points, small trains of thought would progress from the narrator and I would begin to think I ‘sorta’ understand what’s going on…. Then flip to the next page and I would feel completely lost again, but I think that was the point.
As a psychology major where my textbooks consist of clear topics which flow nicely from page to page, this style of writing is totally new and challenging for me. It is frustrating when reading to feel the need to understand what is happening before moving along, however that is something I’m trying to move away from as that doesn’t seem to be very useful for these texts.
While reading the first 30 pages, I had made a note that I feel as though the author is lonely in his life. He seems to always have a lot going on around him yet the background seems quiet, and his thoughts seem so loud that they overtake everything else. I enjoyed it when he said “Everything distracts me indefinitely, except for my distraction itself”. I think this signifies that at the end of the day, the world around him distracts him minimally, in comparison to his thoughts that seem to never stop.
Something else that stood out to me was that I felt the narrator was very opinionated, especially when it comes to women. Although I am aware that these are his own thoughts and not necessarily something he is saying out loud and to others, it seems as though he judges women off their bodies and their whereabouts a fair amount.
My question to the class is if anyone feels that they can relate to having this magnitude of thoughts throughout the day similar to the narrator…always thinking critically of the world around them, and taking everything not just simply how it is, but thinking deeper of its meaning and significance. Personally, this is something I do not relate to whatsoever. I feel as though my thoughts are minimal and I tend to just go with the flow.
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After finishing the Reading of Paris Peasant, I just realized how a novel can present beautiful. Aragorn emotionally and intellectually distinguishes a perfect world from the terrible early twentieth-century period. As the contemporary capital of Paris, its inherent enchantment always draws the attention of outsiders, and fantastic things are always happening here. When a countryman … Continue reading Meet the guy in “Paris Peasant” →
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Before I talk about the book itself, I have to describe how incredibly difficult it was to find a physical copy of it. I preemptively started looking for a copy two weeks ago. I started by looking at the Indigo locations in Vancouver and Burnaby because I work at a location in the city and […]
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Hello everyone! In this week’s post, I’m going to be reflecting on my reading of Louis Aragon’s Paris Peasant. I’ve…
Posted in Aragon, Blogs | Tagged with understadning
For this week’s readings, Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon, I found myself at the start a bit confused because I first approached this novel with an annalistic point of view. I caught myself trying to analyze every detail to discover more about the narrative, plot, back story etc. However, as I read more and watched the introduction video about the novel, I became aware of Argon’s intention that it was a “kind of novel that would break all traditional rules governing fiction, one that would be neither a narrative nor a character study.” So, I had to re-read the pages to take in the book in the way it was meant to.
The imagery and detail throughout this novel painted a clear picture of the different areas of Paris. This book captured his day-to-day doings. Personally, I am a very observant person myself, especially when walking around campus or anywhere else. I pay close attention to the environment and the people in it. I enjoyed being a part of the narrator’s thoughts and scenarios as he walked around about the architecture and the people he passed by. I found the passage about women very interesting. It explains women with great detail and resembles them as flashes of light. He explains, “after passing an infinity of these desirable shimmering, without having attempted to take possessions of a single one of these lives… I ask myself disgustedly what I’m doing in the world” (8). I picture the narrator being caught up in his unconscious mind. I thought that the change in the narrator’s environment and the increase of modernization was a cause of stress for him. Also, the fact that he is constantly thinking about the philosophy of his surroundings could be to compensate for his quiet behaviour and his anxiety around his changing community that is making him question his life choices.
This book is known for surrealism. I was not aware of surrealism until reading this book. I searched up surrealism because I wanted to understand the story more. Argon did a fantastic job projecting surrealism and allowing the narrative to focus and allow the unconscious mind to express itself. I enjoyed following him along throughout Paris and understanding his interpretations of the cafe menu, monuments, newspaper clipping, and the people of Paris. The narrator was so detailed it was like being in the thoughts of someone’s mind. My question for this reading is How do you think the narrator felt about the increase in modernization? Overall, this story was nothing close to what I have ever read and it gave me an open mind to surrealism.
For this week’s readings, Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon, I found myself at the start a bit confused because I first approached this novel with an annalistic point of view. I caught myself trying to analyze every detail to discover more about the narrative, plot, back story etc. However, as I read more and watched the introduction video about the novel, I became aware of Argon’s intention that it was a “kind of novel that would break all traditional rules governing fiction, one that would be neither a narrative nor a character study.” So, I had to re-read the pages to take in the book in the way it was meant to.
The imagery and detail throughout this novel painted a clear picture of the different areas of Paris. This book captured his day-to-day doings. Personally, I am a very observant person myself, especially when walking around campus or anywhere else. I pay close attention to the environment and the people in it. I enjoyed being a part of the narrator’s thoughts and scenarios as he walked around about the architecture and the people he passed by. I found the passage about women very interesting. It explains women with great detail and resembles them as flashes of light. He explains, “after passing an infinity of these desirable shimmering, without having attempted to take possessions of a single one of these lives… I ask myself disgustedly what I’m doing in the world” (8). I picture the narrator being caught up in his unconscious mind. I thought that the change in the narrator’s environment and the increase of modernization was a cause of stress for him. Also, the fact that he is constantly thinking about the philosophy of his surroundings could be to compensate for his quiet behaviour and his anxiety around his changing community that is making him question his life choices.
This book is known for surrealism. I was not aware of surrealism until reading this book. I searched up surrealism because I wanted to understand the story more. Argon did a fantastic job projecting surrealism and allowing the narrative to focus and allow the unconscious mind to express itself. I enjoyed following him along throughout Paris and understanding his interpretations of the cafe menu, monuments, newspaper clipping, and the people of Paris. The narrator was so detailed it was like being in the thoughts of someone’s mind. My question for this reading is How do you think the narrator felt about the increase in modernization? Overall, this story was nothing close to what I have ever read and it gave me an open mind to surrealism.
