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"Who was Alfred Jarry really? And how did this angry young man from the provinces come to invent pataphysics and to write the revolutionary drama Ubu Roi? In this, the first full-length biography of Jarry in English, Alastair Brotchie, himself a central figure in the 'Coll ege de 'Pataphysique' and scholar of the avant-garde, gives us a richly documented, beautifully illustrated, and intimate portrait of the complex personality behind the Ubu masks. I found it a real page-turner."--Marjorie Perloff, author of The Futurist Moment and Unoriginal Genius -- Marjorie Perloff "Alastair Brotchie has achieved something very rare. In giving us the first detailed account of Jarry's life, he shares a lot of discoveries and unknown documents but avoids reducing the life to a collection of biographical or archival facts. Indeed, he makes us feel, think, act, see, and almost speak in connivance with this delicate and strange monster, Alfred Jarry." -- Thieri Foulc, cofounder of the Oupeinpo and Provediteur-Editeur General of the College de 'Pataphysique -- Thieri Foulc "Aficionados of Alfred Jarry's writings will welcome this urgently necessary life of the inventor of 'Pataphysics, that mad and minor science of imaginary solutions. Alastair Brotchie's biography fills an enormous gap in our understanding not only of Jarry's complex life but of the tangled sociocultural networks of tastes and antipathies that constructed the Banquet Years. Impeccably researched, masterfully written, and profusely illustrated, Alfred Jarry: A Pataphysical Life is guaranteed to broaden and deepen Anglophone interest in Jarry (whom Cyril Connolly dubbed the Santa Claus of the atomic age) and 'Pataphysics alike." -- Steve McCaffery, David Gray Chair Professor of Poetry and Letters, University at Buffalo, coeditor of Imagining Language: An Anthology -- Steve McCaffery " Alfred Jarry provides many new facts, some pertinent analyses, and a clutch of outrageously amusing yarns." -- Mark Polizzotti, Bookforum "Alastair Brotchie brilliantly evokes the avant-garde artistic movements of fin-de-siecle Paris in all their glittering grubbiness." -- Charlotte Keith, Varsity -- Charlotte Keith, Varsity
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When Alfred Jarry died in 1907 at the age of thirty-four, he was a legendary figure in Paris--but this had more to do with his bohemian lifestyle and scandalous behavior than his literary achievements. A century later, Jarry is firmly established as one of the leading figures of the artistic avant-garde. Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, Gilles Deleuze, Jean Baudrillard, Philip K. Dick, Paul McCartney, DJ Spooky, Peter Greenaway, and J. G. Ballard are among his many admirers. A community of scholars and artists maintain a posthumous dialogue with Jarry's ideas through the College de 'Pataphysique in Paris (named after the "science of imaginary solutions" he conceived), while a steady stream of books on twentieth-century drama pay tribute to his absurd and grotesque play, Ubu Roi. Even so, most people today tend to think of Jarry only as the author of that play, and of his life as a string of outlandish "ubuesque" anecdotes, often recounted with wild inaccuracy. In this first full-length critical biography of Jarry in English, Alastair Brotchie reconstructs the life of a man intent on inventing (and destroying) himself, not to mention his world, and the "philosophy" that defined their relation. In short, Brotchie gives us the narrative version of what Jarry himself produced--a pataphysical life. Drawing on a wealth of new material, Brotchie alternates chapters of biographical narrative with chapters that connect themes, obsessions, and undercurrents that relate to the life. The anecdotes remain, and are even augmented: Jarry's assumption of the "ubuesque," his inversions of everyday behavior (such as eating backwards, from cheese to soup), his exploits with gun and bicycle, and his herculean feats of drinking. But Brotchie distinguishes between Jarry's purposely playing the fool and deeper nonconformities that appear essential to his writing and his thought, both of which remain a vital subterranean influence to this day.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A compelling, readable and funny biography of a complex character. Books on 'pataphysics can be dense, requiring multiple re-reads of every paragraph if you're like me - not a scholarly type. This book is all the more intelligently written for its accessibility and humour. A really really enjoyable read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A great read for both hardcore Jarryphiles, and those as yet uninitiated in the science of imaginary solutions. Alfred Jarry's multifaceted persona is explored in a satisfyingly multifarious manner, all of our favourite anecdotes of the eccentric genius are presented and deconstructed; the owls, the absinthe, the revolver and of course a bountiful smearing of MERDRE. However do not expect a misty-eyed romantic hagiography of the 'pataphysical saint'. Brotchie also gives us an unflinching and sometimes uncomfortable rendering of the great man, of a lost, deluded, bankrupt alcoholic who [SPOILER ALERT] ends up lying paralysed in a pool of his own pschitt. The book ends in the way that Faustroll begins, but with considerably less fantasmagorical results for poor Charlotte when the bill for a 'pataphysical life' comes to be settled. An enjoyable, humorous, and tragic portrait of the father of 'pataphysics.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Alistair Brotchie delivers an excellent biography of Jarry whose mythical exploits often overshadow his work - some we find to be true, such as him living in an apartment which has been divided horizontally into two floors which he is able to live in thanks to his small stature, whereas his death due to a binge on absinthe is somewhat far from the truth (though Brotchie's examination of wine merchant invoices found Jarry and his sister were consuming 10 litres of wine a day at the time of his death, alcohol being a contributing factor even if it was tuberculosis that was the cause of death).
The biography unties the myth from the man, and to some extent from his works, though his most famous character Pere Ubu became curiously entangled with the man, part due to people who didn't know him expecting to be insulted and offended by him on making his acquaintance and part from him adopting the speech and mannerisms of Ubu to hide his rural accent. His success at a young age (more in terms of infamy than phynance) was followed by a uphill struggle to be published hindered greatly by his ability to offend any influential publisher of avant garde literature, whereas there was little uphill struggling for his prodigious feats of cycling, fuelled by huge quantities of alcohol and the fish he caught himself.
In latter years Jarry slips further into debt and alcohol which slowly destroy the man even as he becomes more renowned and respected among the new generation of French poets and authors (and quite famously Picasso who after the author's death treasured the revolver Jarry was famed to pull out and start shooting at any volatile moment). All this seems more tragic due to his desire for a simple life, to live by the river in a run-down shack and live off the fish he catches whilst cycling long distances and continuing with his writing. Brotchie resists the urge to sentimentalise instead choosing to paint the starkness of Jarry's life, something often deeply contrasted against his unwavering optimism that almost holds up until the end.
Its an excellent work which succeeds in being both scholarly but also very readable and entertaining. One interesting facet of the book is that Brotchie divides each chapter with a mini chapter musing on some facet of Jarry's life. Particularly interesting concerns the evolution of Ubu Roi, a play originally part of an oral tradition in Jarry's school mocking the pompous and bumbling physics teacher Pere Hèbert that was continually worked upon by generations of students to pile on the indignities the hapless Hèb suffers.
The biography unties the myth from the man, and to some extent from his works, though his most famous character Pere Ubu became curiously entangled with the man, part due to people who didn't know him expecting to be insulted and offended by him on making his acquaintance and part from him adopting the speech and mannerisms of Ubu to hide his rural accent. His success at a young age (more in terms of infamy than phynance) was followed by a uphill struggle to be published hindered greatly by his ability to offend any influential publisher of avant garde literature, whereas there was little uphill struggling for his prodigious feats of cycling, fuelled by huge quantities of alcohol and the fish he caught himself.
In latter years Jarry slips further into debt and alcohol which slowly destroy the man even as he becomes more renowned and respected among the new generation of French poets and authors (and quite famously Picasso who after the author's death treasured the revolver Jarry was famed to pull out and start shooting at any volatile moment). All this seems more tragic due to his desire for a simple life, to live by the river in a run-down shack and live off the fish he catches whilst cycling long distances and continuing with his writing. Brotchie resists the urge to sentimentalise instead choosing to paint the starkness of Jarry's life, something often deeply contrasted against his unwavering optimism that almost holds up until the end.
Its an excellent work which succeeds in being both scholarly but also very readable and entertaining. One interesting facet of the book is that Brotchie divides each chapter with a mini chapter musing on some facet of Jarry's life. Particularly interesting concerns the evolution of Ubu Roi, a play originally part of an oral tradition in Jarry's school mocking the pompous and bumbling physics teacher Pere Hèbert that was continually worked upon by generations of students to pile on the indignities the hapless Hèb suffers.
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