we believed. The underlying instability of Dal's paintings, the erratic nature of Buuel's films -- they all offer a glimpse of the non-linear. But it was in the written work that the use of the chaotic was easiest to pinpoint. The traditional novel depends on a narrative arc -- a linear construction that lends itself quite readily to non-linear subversion. Adopting the expression "as beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella" by the obscure 19th century writer Isidore Ducasse as his motto, Breton chose the 'chance meeting' as the basis for his work not in any pre-ordained sense, but in the belief that this is how life really works. In his book Nadja, the seemingly meaningless encounter had by the protagonist and the work's namesake remains just that: meaningless. Yes, there are knock-on events, but ultimately the narrative logic that would dictate this as a love story is thrown aside in favour of a more authentic randomness. And what is rebellion against logic if not a rebellion against linearity? By reaching a 'logical conclusion', we presume to be able to predict what will happen -- just as a physicist will presume to predict a scientific outcome. Yet the ultimate conclusion of this process exists within a vacuum, unaffected by the inherent randomness that must exist in an infinite universe; in an infinite reality, anything is possible. Breton did not confine his work to the vacuum of the novel, but incorporated the Surrealist vision