I’ve always taken a liking to the name Nadja. According to Andre Breton in his “novel” (if you could even call it that), Nadja, the name is the beginning of the Russian word hope and emphasises that it’s only the beginning.
Breton, a French surrealist who is generally signified as the creator of the movement, wrote Nadja in 1928, and it begins with a rhetorical question: “Who am I?” The “novel” consists of a series of observations that Breton uses as examples for different philosophical questions and issues that he addresses. I would call the “novel” non-linear in structure, though it does have an overarching autobiographical topic that is Breton’s relationship with Pierre Janet. The book is regarded as a highly influential work within the context of its time.
You may or may not know about one of the best doom metal bands making music since 2003 called Nadja. If not, I suggest going out immediately and finding something from their vast body of work, especially Desire in Uneasiness, which came out in 2008, or their latest covers album When I See the Sun Always Shines on T.V. (the concept of a drone metal band covering people like Elliot Smith is pretty mindblowing).
The duo, which consists of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff, apparently got the name of their band from Breton’s novel, says Wikipedia. According to an interview in Rock-A-Rolla I read last month, this is not entirely accurate. Baker apparently got the name “Nadja” by spelling his first name, Aidan, backwards creating “Nadia” and replaced the “i” with a “j” as possibly a homage to Breton’s book. In line with Breton’s belief in the supernatural and coincidence, I find this coincidence highly interesting.
Also named after Breton’s Nadja is a 1994 film of the same name directed by Michael Almereyda and produced none other than David Lynch, the film also features music by My Bloody Valentine. Dreamlike indeed!
While I’m still on the topic of the name Nadja, I was reading Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers earlier this year and was surprised to find that Spiegelman named his daughter Nadja. After Breton’s book, perhaps? I believe not. It seems highly likely considering (in my opinion at least) Spiegelman is one of the most adventurous comic artist and graphic novelists of all time. Further evidence, I believe, also lies in the fact that Spiegelman named his son Dashiell (after Dashiell Hammett, I’m guessing) and their dog Houdini.
Filed under: Nadja
