Pataphysical Essays

Essays reflecting on the science of imaginary solutions, from an influential figure in pataphysical thoughtPataphysics: the science of imaginary solutions, of laws governing exceptions and of the laws describing the universe supplementary to this one. Alfred JarryâEUR(TM)s posthumous novel, Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician, first appeared in 1911, and over the next 100 years, his pataphysical supersession of metaphysics would influence everyone from Marcel Duchamp and Boris Vian to Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard. In 1948 in Paris, a group of writers and thinkers would found the College of âEUR(TM)Pataphysics, still going strong today. The iconoclastic RenÃ(c) Daumal was the first to elaborate upon JarryâEUR(TM)s unique and humorous philosophy. Though Daumal is better known for his unfinished novel Mount Analogue and his refusal to be adopted by the Surrealist movement, this newly translated volume of writings offers a glimpse of often overlooked Daumal: Daumal the pataphysician. Pataphysical Essays collects DaumalâEUR(TM)s overtly pataphysical writings from 1929 to 1941, from his landmark exposition on pataphysics and laughter to his late essay, âEURœThe Pataphysics of Ghosts. âEUR. DaumalâEUR(TM)s âEURœTreatise on PatagramsâEUR. offers the reader everything from a recipe for the disintegration of a photographer to instructions on how to drill a fount of knowledge in a public urinal. This volume also includes DaumalâEUR(TM)s column for the Nouvelle Revue Française, âEURœPataphysics This Month. âEUR. Reading like a deranged encyclopedia, âEURœPataphysics This MonthâEUR. describes a new mythology for the field of science, and amply demonstrates that the twentieth century had been a distinctly pataphysical era.