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

The Proaram of 'Pataphvsics
Oulipo derives its inspiration for this kind of
anagrammatic 'pataphysics from the work of Swift, who
conceives "a project for improving speculative knowledge
by[ ...) mechanical operations" (148). What Swift describes
with humour in a spirit of moral seriousness, Oulipo
practices with humour in a spirit of sober whimsy.
What
Swift satirizes, Oulipo plagiarizes.
Like the projectors at
the Grand Academy of Lagado, the professors at l'ouvroir de
littgrature potentielle recombine the disiecta eembra of a
textual history in order to invent an absurd device that can
eliminate the necessitg for inspiration:
"[elvery one knows
how laborious the usual method is of attaining to arts and
sciences; whereas by[ ...] contrivance the most ignorant
person[ ...] may write books[...jwithout the least assistance
from genius or study" (148).
Swift imagines a screen across which the spectacle of
the alea-and the fata can appear and disappear through the
automation of an ars combinatoria.
The Grand Academg of
Lagado creates a framework of wood cubes, that suive1 on
wire axles, their numerous facets covered by square pieces
of paper with al1 the words of the language engraven upon
them in al1 their moods and cases, but without any order, so