'Pataphysics
Introduction
'Pataphysics was a concept expressed by Jarry in a mock-scientific manner, with undertones of spoofing and quackery, as expounded in his novel Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician. Here, Jarry toyed with conventional concepts and interpretations of reality. Another attempt at a definition interprets 'pataphysics as an idea that "the virtual or imaginary nature of things as glimpsed by the heightened vision of poetry or science or love can be seized and lived as real". Jarry defines 'pataphysics in a number of statements and examples, including that it is "the science of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments". A practitioner of 'pataphysics is a pataphysician or a pataphysicist.Definitions
One definition of 'pataphysics is that it is "a branch of philosophy or science that examines imaginary phenomena that exist in a world beyond metaphysics; it is the science of imaginary solutions." Jean Baudrillard defines 'pataphysics as "the imaginary science of our world, the imaginary science of excess, of excessive, parodic, paroxystic effects – particularly the excess of emptiness and insignificance".There are over one hundred definitions of 'pataphysics. Some examples are shown below.
Etymology
The word pataphysics is a contracted formation that derives from the Greek τὰ ἐπὶ τὰ μεταφυσικά. It is a phrase/expression that mean "that which is above metaphysics". It is itself a sly variation on the title of Aristotle's Metaphysics, which in Greek is "τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά".Jarry mandated the inclusion of the apostrophe in both the words 'pataphysique and 'pataphysics "... to avoid a simple pun". The words pataphysician or pataphysicist and the adjective pataphysical should not include the apostrophe. Only when consciously referring to Jarry's science itself should the word
The term pataphysics is a paronym of metaphysics. Since the apostrophe in no way affects the meaning or pronunciation of pataphysics, this spelling of the term is a sly notation, to the reader, suggesting a variety of puns that listeners may hear, or be aware of. These puns include patte à physique, as interpreted by Jarry scholars Keith Beaumont and Roger Shattuck, pas ta physique, and pâte à physique.
History
The term first appeared in print in the text of Alfred Jarry's play Guignol in the 28 April 1893 issue of L'Écho de Paris littéraire illustré, but it has been suggested that the word has its origins in the same school pranks at the lycée in Rennes that led Jarry to write Ubu Roi. Jarry considered Ibicrates and Sophrotatos the Armenian as the fathers of this "science".The Collège de 'Pataphysique
The Collège de 'Pataphysique, founded in 1948 in Paris, France, is "a society committed to learned and inutilious research". The motto of the college is .The permanent head of the college is the Inamovable Curator, Dr. Faustroll, assisted by Bosse-de-Nage : both are fictional.
The Vice-Curator is the "first and most senior living entity" in the college's hierarchy. The Vice-Curatrice as of 2018 is Tanya Peixoto of the London Institute of 'Pataphysics and Bookartbookshop. She was elected in 2014 to succeed Her Magnificence Lutembi – a crocodile – who succeeded Opach, the Baron Mollet, and Doctor Sandomir.
Jean-Christophe Averty was appointed Satrap in 1990.
Publications of the college, generally called , include the Cahiers, Dossiers, the Subsidia Pataphysica and since September 2021, the Spéculations.
Notable members have included Marcel Duchamp, Joan Miró, Eugène Ionesco, Noël Arnaud, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-Christophe Averty, René Daumal, Luc Étienne, François Le Lionnais, Jean Lescure, Raymond Queneau, Boris Vian, Jacques Carelman, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Julien Torma, Roger Shattuck, Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx, Philippe de Chérisey, Umberto Eco, Rolando Villazón, Fernando Arrabal and Gavin Bryars. The Oulipo began as a subcommittee of the college.
Offshoots of the Collège de 'Pataphysique
Although France had been always the centre of the pataphysical globe, there are followers in different cities around the world. In 1966, Juan Esteban Fassio was commissioned to draw the map of the Collège de 'Pataphysique and its institutes abroad.The college stopped its public activities between 1975 and 2000, referred to as its occultation. However through that time, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, The Netherlands, and many other countries showed that the internationalization of 'pataphysics was irreversible.
In the 1950s, Buenos Aires in the Western Hemisphere and Milan in Europe were the first cities to have pataphysical institutes. London, Edinburgh, Budapest, and Liège, as well as many other European cities, caught up in the sixties.
Czechoslovakia
During the communist era, a small group of 'pataphysicists in Czechoslovakia started a journal called PAKO, or Pataphysical Collegium. Jarry's plays had a lasting impression on the country's underground philosophical scene.London Institute of 'Pataphysics
The London Institute of 'Pataphysics was established in September 2000 to promote 'pataphysics in the English-speaking world. The institute has various publications, including a journal, and has six departments: Bureau for the Investigation of Subliminal Images, Committee for Hirsutism and Pogonotrophy, Department of Dogma and Theory, Department of Potassons, Department of Reconstructive Archaeology, and The Office of Patentry.The institute also contains a pataphysical museum and archive and organised the Anthony Hancock Paintings and Sculptures exhibition in 2002.
The official orchestra of the London Institute of 'Pataphysics is the London Snorkelling Team.
Peter Blegvad has been the president of the London Institute of 'Pataphysics since 2011.
Musée Patamécanique
is a private museum located in Bristol, Rhode Island. Founded in 2006, it is open by appointment only to friends, colleagues, and occasionally to outside observers. The museum is presented as a hybrid between an automaton theatre and a cabinet of curiosities and contains works representing the field of Patamechanics, an artistic practice and area of study chiefly inspired by 'pataphysics.Examples of exhibits include a troupe of singing animatronic chipmunks, a time machine the museum says is the world's largest automated phenakistoscope, an olfactory clock, a chandelier of singing animatronic nightingales, an Undigestulator, a peanuts enlarger, a syzygistic oracle, the earolin, and a machine for capturing the dreams of bumble bees.
'Pataphysics Institute in Vilnius
A 'Pataphysics Institute opened in Vilnius, Lithuania in May 2013.Concepts
; Clinamen : A clinamen is the unpredictable swerve of atoms that poet Christian Bök calls "... the smallest possible aberration that can make the greatest possible difference". An example is Jarry's merdre, a swerve of .; Antinomy : An antinomy is the mutually incompatible. It represents the duality of things, the echo or symmetry, the good and the evil at the same time. Hugill mentions various examples including the plus-minus, the faust-troll, the haldern-ablou, the yes-but, the ha-ha and the paradox.
; Syzygy : The syzygy originally comes from astronomy and denotes the alignment of three celestial bodies in a straight line. In a pataphysical context it is the pun. It usually describes a conjunction of things, something unexpected and surprising. Serendipity is a simple chance encounter but the syzygy has a more scientific purpose. Bök mentions Jarry suggesting that the fall of a body towards a centre might not be preferable to the ascension of a vacuum towards a periphery.
; Absolute : The absolute is the idea of a transcended reality.
; Anomaly : An anomaly represents the exception. Jarry said that, "Pataphysics will examine the laws governing exceptions, and will explain the universe supplementary to this one." Bök calls it "... the repressed part of a rule which ensures that the rule does not work".
; Pataphor : A pataphor is an unusually extended metaphor based on 'pataphysics. As Jarry claimed that 'pataphysics exists "... as far from metaphysics as metaphysics extends from regular reality", a pataphor attempts to create a figure of speech that exists as far from metaphor as metaphor exists from non-figurative language.
Pataphysical calendar
The pataphysical calendar is a variation of the Gregorian calendar. The Collège de 'Pataphysique created the calendar in 1949. The pataphysical era started on Jarry's birthday, 8 September 1873 vulg. When converting pataphysical dates to Gregorian dates, the appendage for vulgate is added.The week starts on a Sunday. Every 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd is a Sunday and every 13th day of a month falls on a Friday. Each day is assigned a specific name or saint. For example, the 27 Haha is called or the 14 Sable is the day of.
The year has a total of 13 months each with 29 days. The 29th day of each month is imaginary with two exceptions:
- the 29 Gidouille is always non-imaginary
- the 29 Gueules is non-imaginary during leap years
| Month | Starts | Ends | Translation |
| Absolu | 8 September | 5 October | Absolute |
| Haha | 6 October | 2 November | Ha Ha |
| As | 3 November | 30 November | Skiff |
| Sable | 1 December | 28 December | Sand or heraldic black |
| Décervelage | 29 December | 25 January | Debraining |
| Gueules | 26 January | 22 February | Heraldic red or gob |
| Pédale | 23/24 February | 22 March | Bicycle pedal |
| Clinamen | 23 March | 19 April | Swerve |
| Palotin | 20 April | 17 May | Ubu's henchmen |
| Merdre | 18 May | 14 June | Pshit |
| Gidouille | 15 June | 13 July | Spiral |
| Tatane | 14 July | 10 August | Shoe or being worn out |
| Phalle | 11 August | 7 September | Phallus |
For example:
- 8 September 1873 = 1 Absolu 1
- 1 January 2000 = 4 Décervelage 127
- 10 November 2012 = 8 As 140