'Pataphysics, was Re: [ADS-L] Something Borrowed ...

[George Thompson]

The TLS has had a flea in its ear over Pataphysics for the last few weeks.
The November 6 issue carries a letter from Stephen Fletcher, prof. of chemistry at Loughborough University.  He cites a lecture by Lord Kelvin, aka William Thomson, in 1883, asserting that real knowledge is quantifiable: "when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it".  Fletcher says that this "pompous comment" came to the attention of Albert Jarry, who was "appalled", and created "pataphysics", "which is surely the branch of knowledge which deals with anything that cannot be measured or reproduced".
I read Ubu and several other works by Jarry many many years ago, but had never encountered this tale before, and do not know how widely known it is among the well-informed, or even whether it is true.  Fletcher cites sources for Kelvin/Thomson's lecture, but not for the Jarry connection.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Date: Friday, November 13, 2009 8:55 am
Subject: 'Pataphysics, was Re: [ADS-L] Something Borrowed ...
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> Quoting Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>:
>
> > ....
> > R.W.Hamilton
> >
> > (M.A. [Glasgow]; D.Phil. [York]),
> > Professor Emeritus
> > University of 'Pataphysics, Cockaigne.
>
> OED online etymology for pataphysics begins "[< French pataphysique
> (a1907),...."
>
> Alfred Jarry's 1888 publication Les antliaclastes: Drame en trois actes,
> Collège de 'pataphysique, uses the term three times:
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=DSwQAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA9&dq=intitle:Antliaclastes&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=0#v=onepage&q=%27pataphysique&f=false
>
> Stephen
> http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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