PATAPHYSICS-THE-POETICS-OF-AN-IMAGINARY- SCIENCE_C_Bok

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French Oulipianism:
A 'Pataphssics of Mathetic Exception
"That which certain writers have introduced
with talent (even with genius) in their
work[...,]
(Oulipo) intends to do
systematically and scientifically, if need be
through recourse to machines that process
information." (Oulipo 1986:27)
"[Djays are spooky[ ...] now that my
dissertation is insane." (RACTER [36])
Machinic Mathesis
French Oulipians present the second case for the
surrationalism of the 'pataphysical, revising the structure
of exception in order to oppose the irrationalism of the
French Surrealists. Members of Oulipo (l'ouvroir de
1
littgrature potentielle) respond to the avant-garde pseudo-
science of Jarry by inflecting the mathetic intensities of
numerological forms, arguing that exception results from the
constraint of programs.
Like Futurism, Oulipo regards
literature as a cyborganic phenornenon that results f rom
deliberate collisions betneen tropaic devices:
the machinic
paralogy of accidents.
For the Oulipisns, writing is