The Pataphysical Society of New York

118 years ago, Jarry acquired the necessary experiences to savor all possible beauties, pataphysical and otherwise. The author surpasses the author, November 1, 1907.

En kanin med en vaffel. På hovedet.

this is the photo in the "absurdity" article on Danish Wikipedia ("A rabbit with a waffle. On the head")

"Taunting the Useful" by Loumille Métros (published in August of last year) is compact, whimsical, and thought-provoking, with wonderfully eclectic citations – and it’s available as a free download from Punctum Books: punctumbooks.com/titles/taunt...

After he gained divisive fame in France, Henri Rousseau’s first solo show was in 1910 at “291” – the renowned NYC gallery that later introduced Americans to Cezanne and Picasso. Of course, Jarry had already recognized Rousseau's genius by commissioning his only lithograph for L'Ymagier No. 2.

Chapters begin with epigraphs, welcome islands of plain English text, drawn from a vast library of equivalent sources, from Deuteronomy to Rick and Morty.

Reading Rotpunkt! (Pataphysics of a Criminal Mind), the new experimental novel by Alberto Calligaris is fiendishly disorienting because it is almost entirely written in IPA notation. The supposedly “found” text contains encryptions, neologisms, stains, and mystery!

PATAPHYSICS

Pataphysics-inspired, shoeless, experimental music and visuals in Brooklyn this Saturday (No. 16 in a series). Featuring Todd Polenberg, Joshue Ott, Ezekiel Honig, and @matthewdgantt.bsky.social
pataphysics.io

Tangent to a point on a spiral:
absurd.website

Normal to the tangent:
theuselessweb.com

#AlfredJarry
Portrait by my father
Carl Köhler (1919-2006)

Up and Down At once a spoof of French cycling culture and a loving tribute to 19th-century writer and forerunner of surrealism Alfred Jarry, Up and Down follows a bicycle rally up the French Alps’ Parpaillon pass...

The entire Society staff happened to be conducting ritualistic Corsican contemplations when this cinematic event materialized in the world.
www.filmlinc.org/films/up-and... We are nevertheless grateful to a member for alerting us to it.

It's very distinctive. Thank you for posting.

Here’s a contemporary application of pataphysics in a fun little paper on pataphors by Timo Airaksinen. Warning: contains some spicy pataphysical claims. Also delightful for its treatment of contemporary and more recent, lesser cited sources.
jmb-online.com/pdf/05/JMB-4...

Today is the birthday of Alfred Jarry, first and greatest popularizer of Sophrotatos the Armenian, and father of modern pataphysics. Born on this date 152 years ago. Merdre! Portrait by Frédéric-Auguste Cazals.

Space as it appeared at the end of an era, September 7, 1873

152 years ago today, there was a final moment in the universe, having lasted since the start of eternity, that was about to end: the period of existence that had not yet contained Alfred Jarry.

It is always a golden era for Pataphysics, and right now is no exception, as usual.

Pataphysics will:
(Examine the laws governing exceptions AND explain the universe supplementary to this one) OR
(Describe a universe which can OR should be envisaged in the place of the traditional one).

Pataphysicians have a proclivity for colorful language.

FIRST PUBLICATION IN ENGLISH The Pope’s Mustard-Maker (Le Moutardier du pape) was the last work that Alfred Jarry finished, a few months before his death in 1907. It is a bawdy three-act farce loosely based on the medieval leg…

If recent pontifical proceedings have you yearning for more papal content, consider this English translation of Jarry's "Moutardier du Pape" (The Pope's Mustard Maker) published by Black Scat Books in 2019: blackscatbooks.com/2019/08/10/f...

For more on collecting Jarry memorabilia, see this essay (in French) by Linda K. Stillman, whose immense collection is now at the Morgan Library in NYC. Pages 327 to 341. alfredjarry.fr/amisjarry/fi...

An original performance ticket and program from the 1896 premiere of Ubu Roi sold at auction today outside Paris. Hammer price: €3340. The extremely rare ephemera came from the collection of historian and critic Victor Perrot. Congratulations to the lucky collector!

Saddened to hear of David Thomas’s death last week. His scathing, jubilant, irascible sound will live forever.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVTt...

Unrelated, here’s a concert lineup featuring Pere Ubu and the current president of the London Institute of Pataphysics.

A welcome primer, in English, on an important symbol of pataphysics. We'd only note that the symbol isn't *official* in any way, as written. De facto, perhaps, but there can, of course, be nothing official in pataphysics (perhaps to the chagrin of the College). www.patakosmos.com/what-is-a-gi...

“Fear Visits Love” is featured in Crease by Domino Books (2024), an art comic anthology edited by Austin English. Here Jarry – and Rachilde! – are deliciously illustrated by @cccilla.bsky.social. www.dominobooks.org/crease.html

To celebrate National Poetry Month, we offer this new translation of Alfred Jarry’s "The Man with The Axe," alongside the painting that inspired it.

How tall was Dr. Faustroll? Jarry says "medium height," but the classic equation, given in terms of atomic diameters, says otherwise. Multiplying even the smallest atom's diameter (hydrogen at .1 nm) by the 81,405,000,000 from Jarry's equation results in 8.1 meters or 26.7 feet in height!

My Works, Ye Mighty - Athabasca University Press My Works, Ye Mighty expands upon the conceptual literature of Christian Bök, particularly his ongoing project, entitled The Xenotext. Based upon work conducted during his tenure as the Writer-in-Resid...

Not surprised that the inimitable Christian Bök has found a clever nondeterministic way to supersede the already pataphysical tradition of publishing in limited, numbered, and now stochastic and nondeterministic editions. Looking forward to receiving our copy. www.aupress.ca/books/120337...

A numerical evaluation of the Finite Monkeys Theorem The Infinite Monkeys Theorem has long-established the eventual certainty of the complete works of William Shakespeare being reproduced by a monkey ran…

Link to Woodcock and Falletta: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Willy vs. Jimmy: Which Typing Monkey gets all the Bananas? The typing monkeys scenario postulates that, given enough time, the works of William Shakespeare could be produced as the result of a random process acting on a typewriter. The original scenario relie...

Link to Hennessy: www.academia.edu/68336468/Wil...

The team was able to identify and catalog an astounding number of nonwords — 8,352,712,501 — and analyze them using various techniques.

4. We explored these more compelling aspects in our study of nonwords last year, including analysis of the Bible, War and Peace, and Moby Dick. Perhaps a remedial update including Shakespeare is overdue. patanyc.org/nonwords

3. The interesting part is the cognitive recognition threshold where meaning emerges, rather than at the opposite end, where it begins to decay. Hennessy’s information theory approach outlines how complexity and entropy in language intersect to create meaning. monkeys.zip brings the idea to life.