'Pataphysics (French: 'pataphysique) is a philosophy or media theory dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics. The concept was coined by French writer Alfred Jarry (1873–1907), who defined 'pataphysics as "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.
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Concepts
- Clinamen
- A clinamen is the unpredictable swerve of atoms that Bök calls “the smallest possible aberration that can make the greatest possible difference”. An example is Jarry’s merdre, a swerve of French: merde ("shit").
The Grand Gidouille on Ubu's belly is a symbol of pataphysics
- 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."
