i have only just now managed to claw my way out of an internet vortext which sucked up a good five hours of my day, the result of which is one miniscule nugget of understanding: in my humble opinion humanity is not equipped in any proper way to deal with absurdity. what began with a short article in the fortean times about ‘pataphysics lead me yet again unknowingly into the territory of duchamp, the sittuationalist, et al, in bread crumb fashion though a veritable laundry list of the alternative viewpoint- alfred jarry, ‘college de pataphysique, dada, london institute of ‘pataphysics, ecco, baudrillard, beckett, ionesco, patapsychology, robert anton wilson, the committee for surrealist investigation of claims of the normal, gorilla ontology, the principa discordia, timothy leary, bucky fuller, marshal mcluhan, wilhelm reich, orgone energy, william s. burroughs, ken kesey, ru sirius, the church of the sub-genius, etc… it was like being taken on a tour by the ghost of counterculture past.

first off let me say i love the fortean times. it fascinates me while simultaneously tempering my near terminal earnestness. the article which set the ball rolling briefly mentions two semi-farcical schools of thought that i found interesting. ‘pataphysics, alfred jarry’s creation for going beyond metaphysics, and the offshoot patapsychlogy popularized by robert anton wilson. the reason i characterize these as “semi-farcical” is because these guys are satirists. the reason i don’t simply call them satyrical, or plain old farcical is that the nuggets of truth inherent in these constructs were palpable enough to see them both embraced in some degree by others. my interest (mainly in the patapsychology end) came from a certain parallel which might be drawn to those opaque notions of my own which lead to the creation of the nonist. let me quote from the article so you can get a sense of what i’m talking about:

‘pataphysics: “jarry’s idea was that ‘pataphysics can shed new light on the world by turning it upside down in a process of creative chaos. we can only get to the truth by escaping from our preconceptions and abandoning our habitual association of ideas.” this is a very broad statement obviously but keep in mind this was 1896, pre dada, pre surrealism.

patapsychology: “the underlying idea is that there is no such thing as a normal person or an average day. the normal, the average, the ordinary even the typical, exist only in statistics, i.e. the human mathematical mindscape. as a result no human can ever be normal but must be abnormal, subnormal, supernormal, paranormal, or some variety of nonnormal.” this happens to be something i believe whole heartedly, and though r.a.w. (as he is often referred to) is largely thought of as a satirist because of the illuminatus trilogy after reading a few interviews with him i’m apt to think he believes this particular nugget whole heartedly as well. for example on the related guerilla ontology he says:  “I like guerrilla ontology as a description. ontology is the branch of philosophy that tries to understand what’s real and what isn’t, or what’s the difference between real reality and mere appearance. guerrilla ontology is closely related to french deconstructionism. I didn’t realize this while I was developing guerrilla ontology, but our approach is to knock down everybody else’s attempt to settle the question. what the scientifically illiterate consider the final answer is just the latest model. the latest model, presumably, will include more facts than any previous model, or it won’t become prevalent. the latest model will be the best we can do at this time, but it will be replaced by a better model in five years, if not sooner. our attitude is: there is no final answer.”

anyone whose been paying any attention around here can see what would attract me in these statements. granted, these are not exactly revolutionary ideas, these sentiments are part of an endless array of philosophies in one permutation or another, but that does not prevent me from finding pleasure in seeing them propounded by the “known quantities” of the world. i never studied philosophy, never really studied anything but art, which in effect means i never really studied. i feel like an autodidact when it comes to my view of the world and it’s workings, so every time i’m in the midst of spewing some shaky homegrown theory and someone interjects to say, “you ought to read kant” or “you sound like a stoic” i feel somewhat bolstered in my stubborn “i’ll find my own way” mentality. this is essentially why i decided to delve deeper into these two semi-farcical constructs and hop onto google. as is often the case, this is where the trouble started.

following the bread crumbs i navigated through the list mentioned previously, and in almost every instance there was some nugget of interest, some beauty, some wit, some wisdom. the problem, however, was the overwhelming silliness of it all when taken in full. the drug fueled counterculture, the alternative spiritual movements, the avant guard arts, in some manner each and every one manages to drown any morsel of truth it represents in a storm of pomp or self importance and hence completely undermines itself. it’s the believing your own hype syndrome i’d say. this brings me back to my own nugget, that humans are not equipped to deal with absurdity. every dissenting cultural or intellectual movement seems in no small degree to be driven by the understanding that what prevails, what is propped up, what is “normal” or accepted is absurd. this in my estimation is true. it

is

all absurd, every ultimate reason put forth, every grand theory, every cherished truth, every high-ground moral stance, every final solution. what our esteemed avant guard reactionaries so quickly forget is that every revolution is ultimately absurd as well. in the end “reality” subsumes each new shake-up, each revolutionary idea, into its absurd bulk, rendering it palatable, powerless, cute, and quaint. this is the reason there can never be a coherent nonist idea, definition, or manifesto. why bother? it’s only reality tempting the absurd into itself. ask the revolutionary duchamp. best i can tell from my uneducated seat it will remain this way either until some super-computer operating 800 trillion terraflops per second finds sense in chaos theory, or forever.

while reading through the many articles, interviews, and histories i came upon today i had many lucid ideas and there were many things i wanted to say to you. i’m fairly positive i said none of them here. but that’s o.k. in the end it boiled down to something similar to my experiences with existentialism via sartre: it rings painfully true, but knowing that being-in-itself has no meaning does not actually help you navigate your existence, and does not change anything. similarly the knowledge that our accepted reality stinks of the absurd does not make it less absurd and does not arm you in any way against it, because i’m sorry, but “laughing” does not keep the electrodes from your testicles and the tsunami from your doorstep, nor does it answer your guttural cries of “why?!” it’s best use is in response to self important answer imposing dogma of any sort.

now that i’ve rambled my absurd take on it all let me share some of the stuff i came across so you can check it out for yourself. contrary to my final descent into “guerilla ontology” in the last couple of paragraphs there is some enjoyable stuff. does any of it bring us closer to truth? most likely not. but it’s entertaining! (i’ll spare you all any leary, reich, sub-genius, etc.)

short jarry bio

aside from being an ordinary madman jarry also had his hand in some really beautiful printed materials. here’s a gallery

alfred jarry and the discovery of anti-matter

how to construct a time machine by alfred jarry.

pata or quantum: duchamp and the end of determinist physics

pataphysics of year 2000 by jean baudrillard.

political pataphysics of the state by one mr. sartre. 

atlas press which has some very attractive looking patawhatever books.

institute of ‘pataphysical studies

‘pataphysics: a religion in the making originally appeared in Internationale Situationniste No.6 (August 1961). yup, those jokers again.

‘pataphysics magazine (they did a kitten issue!) some content of which you can read here

hang the tsar nice interview with r.a.w.

committee for surrealist investigation of claims of the normal, or csicon via r.a.w’s site. begins:  “do you believe in UFOs?” somebody asked. “yes, of course,” i answered. the questioner, who looked quite young, then burst into a long speech, “proving” at least to his own satisfaction that all UFOs “really are” sun-dogs or heat inversions. when he finally ran down i simply replied, “well, we both agree that UFOs exist. our only difference is that you think you know what they are and i’m still puzzled.” haha, champion.

a bunch of r.a.w. texts. you’ll notice a bunch of other names to each side of these links… see where i was going with my “ghost of counterculture past” thing?

the principa discordia really is an entertaining and brilliant piece of weirdness. 

via this discordia page - how to be a cultist

that’s it, that’s all.