Ben Fisher
204
only how the physical nature of the world may be perceived, but also
how mankind should be “scientifically” educated to perceive and interact with it.
The text concerned is a novel, widely and not unreasonably
regarded as “difficult”,
1 by Alfred Jarry (1873-1907), an author whose
notorious eccentricity still tends to obscure the remarkable breadth of
an œuvre of which the scandalous play Ubu Roi is only a small and
atypical element. The novel Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll,
pataphysicien, roman néo-scientifique remained unpublished in full
(the text may not be quite complete) until four years after Jarry’s
death, but most of the chapters relevant to this essay were published in
the Mercure de France in May 1898, not long after the completion of
the first manuscript (of two) of the novel. Faustroll represents Jarry’s
most sustained presentation and demonstration – both theoretical and
practical – of his invented science of pataphysics. It is the practical
demonstration that is of particular interest here.
The coherency and intended clarity of the demonstration of
pataphysics in Faustroll do need to be stressed, as the science’s meaning and application were by no means clear beforehand, and have remained highly flexible since. In particular the Collège de
’Pataphysique has developed concepts of pataphysics over several
decades which have validity and currency in their own right, but
would now be best described as parallel to Jarry’s concepts. Within
his own work and development, the word existed before it was given a
firm meaning; its obscure origins lie in the Rennes schoolboy material
(an extended tradition to which Jarry was only one of a number of
contributors) which became the bulk of the Ubu plays; for example in
Act II Scene 3 of Ubu Cocu (a play little altered from its schoolboy
form) Père Ubu declares that: “La pataphysique est une science que
nous avons inventée et dont le besoin se faisait généralement sentir”,
without the slightest further explanation (I, p. 497).
2 In Jarry’s first
novel, Les Jours et les nuits (1897), the chapter “Pataphysique” describes the central character Sengle’s mental state, in which there is no
distinction between thought and act, or between sleep and conscious___________________________
1 See for instance Noël Arnaud’s preface to his edition of Alfred Jarry, Gestes et opinions du Docteur Faustroll, pataphyscien, (Paris: Gallimard, 1980), p. 7.
2 All references to Jarry texts are to Alfred Jarry, Œuvres complètes, 3 vols (Paris:
Gallimard/Pléiade, 1972-88). Subsequent references to this edition are given after
quotations in the text.
204
only how the physical nature of the world may be perceived, but also
how mankind should be “scientifically” educated to perceive and interact with it.
The text concerned is a novel, widely and not unreasonably
regarded as “difficult”,
1 by Alfred Jarry (1873-1907), an author whose
notorious eccentricity still tends to obscure the remarkable breadth of
an œuvre of which the scandalous play Ubu Roi is only a small and
atypical element. The novel Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll,
pataphysicien, roman néo-scientifique remained unpublished in full
(the text may not be quite complete) until four years after Jarry’s
death, but most of the chapters relevant to this essay were published in
the Mercure de France in May 1898, not long after the completion of
the first manuscript (of two) of the novel. Faustroll represents Jarry’s
most sustained presentation and demonstration – both theoretical and
practical – of his invented science of pataphysics. It is the practical
demonstration that is of particular interest here.
The coherency and intended clarity of the demonstration of
pataphysics in Faustroll do need to be stressed, as the science’s meaning and application were by no means clear beforehand, and have remained highly flexible since. In particular the Collège de
’Pataphysique has developed concepts of pataphysics over several
decades which have validity and currency in their own right, but
would now be best described as parallel to Jarry’s concepts. Within
his own work and development, the word existed before it was given a
firm meaning; its obscure origins lie in the Rennes schoolboy material
(an extended tradition to which Jarry was only one of a number of
contributors) which became the bulk of the Ubu plays; for example in
Act II Scene 3 of Ubu Cocu (a play little altered from its schoolboy
form) Père Ubu declares that: “La pataphysique est une science que
nous avons inventée et dont le besoin se faisait généralement sentir”,
without the slightest further explanation (I, p. 497).
2 In Jarry’s first
novel, Les Jours et les nuits (1897), the chapter “Pataphysique” describes the central character Sengle’s mental state, in which there is no
distinction between thought and act, or between sleep and conscious___________________________
1 See for instance Noël Arnaud’s preface to his edition of Alfred Jarry, Gestes et opinions du Docteur Faustroll, pataphyscien, (Paris: Gallimard, 1980), p. 7.
2 All references to Jarry texts are to Alfred Jarry, Œuvres complètes, 3 vols (Paris:
Gallimard/Pléiade, 1972-88). Subsequent references to this edition are given after
quotations in the text.