Alfred Jarry was Fucked Up

This Post starts after the jump:

Last Gasp, Inc., out of San Francisco, publishes all sorts of wonderful stuff. Thanks to my new Alfred Jarry obsession, I happened upon them.  Alfred Jarry: The Man with the Axe by Nigey Lennon is an illustrated biography (illustrations by Bill Griffith) of Jarry published by Last Gasp and it’s a great joy to read about the man who invented Pataphysics. Before I quote Lennon on pataphysics, here are some of Last Gasp’s titles and things: The Official Dealer McDope Dealer Game ( a board game) , Hi Fructose: Collected Edition: Under the Counter Culture, This is Greece by Miroslav Sasek, Everybody Into The Pool by Beth Lisick and tons of adult comics. I love Last Gasp!

Now for a lesson in pataphysics:

Pataphysics was born when the immense and rapacious belly, or horngut (cornegidouille) of Pa Ubu was transmuted by a  single stroke (patte a physique) into a pure and noble science.  This is why Pataphysics if often written ‘Pataphysics-the apostrophe serves to prevent a distressing pun (patte a physique, meaning to pat the belly) and also to indicate the magnitude of the  transformation from plus to minus, positive to negative, Ubu to ethernity.