Ben Fisher
214
qu'il en sera toujours ainsi. D’abord ceci n’est exact que le plus souvent, dépend
d’un point de vue, et est codifié selon la commodité, et encore! (I, p. 669)
Furthermore, by populating Dr Faustroll’s boat with characters who
are, among other things, structured parodies of Verne’s explorers, he
enhances the implied critique within the text, as the marvels revealed
in Faustroll’s voyage remain within the realm of the marvellous, and
are explained (insofar as they are explained) through complex artistic
reference rather than scientific method.
However we are not dealing with any kind of general rejection
of science within the Gestes et opinions. In addition to its artistic references, Jarry’s novel also demonstrates an unusually keen interest in
a range of contemporary or recent scientists – many of them British –
with a particular emphasis on ones famous for success through practical experiment as much as through theory. For details of these references and how Jarry may have become familiar with them, Linda
Klieger Stillman’s investigation is thoroughly recommended.
19
Charles Vernon Boys has already been mentioned, and other prominent examples include Michael Faraday and William Crookes; the
chapter “Faustroll plus petit que Faustroll” is dedicated to the latter.
While Jarry’s immediate reference to the physicist and chemist
Crookes is to the method of a paper Jarry is likely to have read in the
Revue scientifique in 1897 (see notes, I, p. 1223), it is interesting to
speculate (there is no evidence) whether Jarry was familiar with the
more eccentric side of Crookes’s work, as it could be relevant to later
parts of the novel. Crookes investigated telepathy, which Jarry uses as
a device; his experiments into spiritualism may also have some relevance as they led him to place faith in it after initial scepticism.
20 I
suggest this may be relevant because while Panmuphle is the only one
of the voyagers to physically survive, both Bosse-de-Nage and Faustroll’s participation in the novel is undiminished by their deaths.
And science is very much to the fore after Faustroll leaves the
Earth by way of the Paris Morgue. From the realm of “Éthernité”, he
communicates by telepathic letters to Lord Kelvin (I, pp. 724-28), first
explaining his attempt to establish fundamental physical measurements in terms drawn from the published lectures and speeches of the
___________________________
19 Linda Klieger Stillman, “Physics and Pataphysics: the Sources of Faustroll”, Kentucky Romance Quarterly, 26 (1979), 81-92.
20 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crookes (accessed 25 March 2007).
214
qu'il en sera toujours ainsi. D’abord ceci n’est exact que le plus souvent, dépend
d’un point de vue, et est codifié selon la commodité, et encore! (I, p. 669)
Furthermore, by populating Dr Faustroll’s boat with characters who
are, among other things, structured parodies of Verne’s explorers, he
enhances the implied critique within the text, as the marvels revealed
in Faustroll’s voyage remain within the realm of the marvellous, and
are explained (insofar as they are explained) through complex artistic
reference rather than scientific method.
However we are not dealing with any kind of general rejection
of science within the Gestes et opinions. In addition to its artistic references, Jarry’s novel also demonstrates an unusually keen interest in
a range of contemporary or recent scientists – many of them British –
with a particular emphasis on ones famous for success through practical experiment as much as through theory. For details of these references and how Jarry may have become familiar with them, Linda
Klieger Stillman’s investigation is thoroughly recommended.
19
Charles Vernon Boys has already been mentioned, and other prominent examples include Michael Faraday and William Crookes; the
chapter “Faustroll plus petit que Faustroll” is dedicated to the latter.
While Jarry’s immediate reference to the physicist and chemist
Crookes is to the method of a paper Jarry is likely to have read in the
Revue scientifique in 1897 (see notes, I, p. 1223), it is interesting to
speculate (there is no evidence) whether Jarry was familiar with the
more eccentric side of Crookes’s work, as it could be relevant to later
parts of the novel. Crookes investigated telepathy, which Jarry uses as
a device; his experiments into spiritualism may also have some relevance as they led him to place faith in it after initial scepticism.
20 I
suggest this may be relevant because while Panmuphle is the only one
of the voyagers to physically survive, both Bosse-de-Nage and Faustroll’s participation in the novel is undiminished by their deaths.
And science is very much to the fore after Faustroll leaves the
Earth by way of the Paris Morgue. From the realm of “Éthernité”, he
communicates by telepathic letters to Lord Kelvin (I, pp. 724-28), first
explaining his attempt to establish fundamental physical measurements in terms drawn from the published lectures and speeches of the
___________________________
19 Linda Klieger Stillman, “Physics and Pataphysics: the Sources of Faustroll”, Kentucky Romance Quarterly, 26 (1979), 81-92.
20 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crookes (accessed 25 March 2007).