The ‘Pataphysics of “reality”
It is a central tenet of ‘Pataphysics that all are pataphysicians but only some are consciously so. Therefore we should consider whether all works of non fiction are also unconsciously pataphysical.
When I was writing my first stories about the imaginary (or rather ideal) version of the London Institute of ‘Patapysics I threw into the mix jokes about lots of authors whose work I believed belonged to this tradition of the unconsciously pataphysical. This particularly included people like Velikovsky who practised what I call “join the dots” scholarship.
Since man first looked at the stars and decided if you really work hard you can imagine they make up the cardinal points of gods and legends, we have played with the facts in order to make prettier patterns. It takes quite a lot of imagination to believe that several stars millions of miles away (and similar distances from each other) are some kind of cosmic drawing of people and things. It takes a whole meta level of imagination to then believe these invented likenesses determine who we are as people based upon where they are in the sky when we are born. In one of the LIP stories I made up new star signs based on the Pataphysical Calender as a parody of astrology – emulating John Sladek’s wonderful Arachne Rising.
Sladek’s The New Apocrypha brilliantly demolishes a wide range of fringe cults and ideas using the best tool possible – humour. I am not worthy to emulate his genius, but that didn’t stop me having a go. Velikovsky, Korzibsky, UFOs, pyramidology and a whole lot of other things were cheerfully thrown into the mix. My other template (apart of course from Jarry and his successors) was Robert Anton Wilson and his dictum of adopting universal agnosticism.
There are a number of tools used by proponents of join the dots “scholarship”. Some ar definitely pataphysical including syzygy. In its origins in astronomy this is when three celestial bodies are in a straight line (Orion’s Belt anyone?)(noting of course any two bodies will always be in a straight line mathematically although we have to allow for a clinamen or swerve). In ‘Pataphysics this generally means a pun, and in this faux scholarship there are lots if examples of “This looks a bit like this so they must be the same or linked”. I have even seen examples in books about Jarry where it is claimed he must have been influenced by something because there is a surface resemblance.
The other concept is that of anomaly or exception. This is often used to justify the idea that because there is no proof of something it must be true because the lack of proof shows there is some which is being suppressed. From UFO’s to QAnon this is used to justify the unjustifiable. As a result there is quite a lot of antinomy or incompatible opposites.
Charles Fort at least used his damned facts and anomalies to challenge orthodoxy rather than trying to make his own theories (except when joking), but those seeking to justify the outlandish try and say because their ideas contradict themselves or accepted fact they must be true because consensus reality is not always correct. This is like saying the statistical fact that coin tosses will average half heads and half tails is wrong if you throw three heads in a row.
The joy of the pataphysical approach is that you celebrate the beauty of exceptions and strange juxtapositions in their own right rather than having to make them a basis for belief. You can enjoy online conspiracy theories as art, rather than some absolute transcendent reality. They are the product of unconscious ‘Pataphysics.
One area in which they are absolutely right is that all works of history and science are also contingent. They are theories developed to fit the “facts” that have been revealed and are liable to be altered or abandoned as new “facts” emerge. Everything is potentially Fortean. They may work in practice, but that doesn’t mean there is not something that works better. And that something may in turn be replaced by a further improvement. The joining of the dots may be more rigorously researched and tested, but it is still a way station not a destination. Everything is unconsciously pataphysical, except ‘Pataphysics.
