The Morphophonetic Universe of Ubu

Author(s): Linda Klieger Stillman

Source: The French Review, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Mar., 1977), pp. 586-595
Published by: American Association of Teachers of French
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/389379
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THE FRENCH REVIEW, VO1. L, No. 4, March 1977 Printed in U.S.A.

The Morphophonetic Universe of Ubu

by Lizzda Klieger Stillman

T T

U BU'S UNIVERSE OWES ITS INTERNAL COHERENCE AND ITS VERY EXISTENCE to

its signs (and "anti-signs"). It does not vie with reality: its subversively
replaces the real world by virtue of the autonomic sign. In his extensive and
judicious study, Michel Arrive acknowledges "l'existence d'une veritable
hantise du signe" in Jarry's writings.l The motivated bond between the
signifier and the signified no longer relies-as it does in ordinary communica-
tive language-upon any referential content, the thing itself; on the contrary,
this relationship depends on an imitation by the signifier of a substance. Such
a motivated connection, accomplished here by the construction of morphopho-
netic models, involves the fundamental semiological problem of discovering
what laws govern the constitution and regulation of signs.2
Symbolic morphophoneticism accounts primarily for the creation of para-
digmatic neologisms, personal names, and syntagmatic accumulations which
systematically and simultaneously subvert the arbitrary but conventional
signs of the "real" world (and implicitly that world structured by those signs)
while circulating motivated but unconventional signs in their place. In turn,
the textual sign becomes the object of linguistic manipulation and subversion,
whence the emergence in the textual system itself of the "anti-sign" whose
morphophonetic reference is internal to that system. The ubuesque signs and
anti-signs-that is, those particular to the construction of the specific world
in which Ubu's form, function, and substance continue to exist-are thus not
restricted to any given work, but determine an intertextual universe in which
cross-reference by the reader must be assumed.
Each sign, because of its plastic rather than intellectual essence, exhibits
polyvalence, capable of signifying not only its own opposite but another
network of significations constructed elsewhere in the text or in another text:
infinite construction and destruction of a single sign in this linguistic game of
mirrors. It is precisely as a semiotic crossroad that the sign manifests its
cosmogonic power. Sequences of signs devoid of conventional referential
"content," devoid too of any logical syntagmatic coordination nevertheless
may signify unleashed gratuitous violence, vector of attack, weighty physical
presence, and utter disdain, while connoting the ludicrous tone of the verbal

' Michel Arrive, Les Langages de Jarry (Paris: Klincksieck, 1972), p. 39.
2 For a detailed discussion of the theory of phonetically motivated codes, see Jean-Michel
Peterfalvi, Introd 7wetion a la psycholing7wistiq7we (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1970)t
pp. 77-82.

586

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UBU 587

exchange. Witness, for example, the following battle between Ubu and
Bougrelas:

-Tiens, lache, gueux, sacripant, mecreant, musulman!

-Tiens! Polognard, soulard, batard, hussard, tartare, calard, cafard, mouchard,
savoyard, communard!
-Tiens, capon, cochon, felon, histrion, fripon, souillon, polochon! [Ubu roi, V.ii]

The deforming and forming of malleable language-morphologically and

phonetically-creates the cosmic vision and presence that is Ubu: hilarious
and putrid, oaf and rampire, enigmatic because polyhedral. Initiating the
reader (in the strict sense of the term), signs convey signified value or
meaning by means of their sculptural and sonorous attributes. In an exem-
plary fashion, the sign, here a sadistic graphico-sonorous network, becomes
an attack, demolishes and rebuilds: it no longer refers to a weapon or a tool, it
is the very substance it signifies.
The undeniably active power of the sign in Ubu's domain is emphasized by
the inclusion of a proto-morphic version of Ubu roi in Jarry's hermetic play
Cesar Antechrist: it appears in the guise of "l'Acte terrestre" in which Ubu
incarnates the Antichrist on Earth. Given that the positive realm of Christ is
that of the sign, the function of this act is to invert the sign, that is, to
institute the reign of the destructured sign, the anti-sign. Ubu roi thus
constitutes an instance par excellence of the deformation of the textual sign.
The realm of the Antichrist, of Ubu as monarch, is in its turn onverted by the
disappearance of the sign altogether in Ubu enchazne. Silence itself becomes
plastic and signifies, simultaneously equal but opposite of the sign as well as
the anti-sign. As Jarry himself states in his epigraph to Ubu enchazne, the
function of this play is to demolish the ruins themselves, the "ruins" being
naturally the inverted sign system, that of the anti-sign.3 The role, then, of
the "zero degree" of the morphophonetic signifier is absolutely active. When,
in the course of Ubu enchaine, certain lexemes characteristic of the vocabu-
lary of Ubu roi (such as cornegidouille or phorqat) are uttered (and these
signs clearly result from a morphological as well as phonetic/graphemic
motivation as we shall see) the aim is to refer to that entire text, supposedly
being destructured by Ubu's ensuing episodes.4 In Ubu's universe silence,
rather than being the absence of input, becomes puzzling and subversive,
precisely in its formal relationship to inter-textual signs. Ubu enchazne opens
with a metatextual dialogue between Mere and Pere Ubu:

3 Ubu, now in chains, proclaims, "Cornegidouille! Nous n'aurons point tout demoli si nous
ne demolissons meme les ruines!"
4 It would appear, however, that this is merely a ploy of Jarry's to dupe his audience into
accepting a reformed tyrant, when indeed Ubu's essence-brute instinct-remains unchanged.
This is evident in the continued use of certain signs such as phynance and the subversive
inclusion of merdre in modified signifiers: "Vous venerable doyen de nos Phorcats . . . soyez
grand-tresorier de toutes nos phynances! . .. Vous tous, voleurs, bandits, arracheurs de
cervelle, je vous nomme sans distinction les vaillants OufElciers de notre Armerdre!" (Ubu
enchagne, IV.vii).

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588 FRENCH REVIEW

- Quoi! tu ne dis rien, Pere Ubu. As-tu donc oublie le mot?

- Mere . . . Ubu! je ne veux plus prononcer le mot, il m'a valu trop de desagrements.
[ Ubu enchaine, I.i]

Just as silence is opposite but equal to the sign and to the anti-sign, it
goes without saying that these last two constitute an inversion. Their value
in Ubu's universe, initially indicated by the opposition of the Antichrist to
Christ, becomes evermore explicit in Ubu enchazne where this law is pro-
nounced, and which by its pronunciation calls into existence a new order. In a
world where "la liberte, c'est l'esclavage!" (UE, V.i) it is only natural to learn
that there, "ne commandent que les esclaves" (UE, V.i) and that Ubu, never
one to forego his biological comfort, becomes the king of the slaves, "celui . . .
qui porte un carcan de metal au cou, des ornernents tels que chalnes et
cordons aux pieds et aux mains" (UE, IV.vi). Of course, it is not the conven-
tional link of content between signifier and signified that is operative, as this
sequence illustrates, but the very structure of opposition, internal to the
lexico-stylistic system that is important.5
The principal lexical pardigm of the Ubu Cycle, introduced in Ubu roi,
consists of the triad "merdre-phynance-physique." This self-regulatory, dy-
namic lexico-stylistic system, along with certain of its transformations and
related "sub-lexemes"(ones that participate in creative morphophonetic moti-
vation but are secondary in importance to this recurrent triangle), creates
Ubu's inherent quality of libidinal revolt against a despised superego, that is,
of course, the "real world." By utilizing recognizable signs, but by deforming
them with the aim of conferring upon them a morphophonetic motivation that
is personal to himself, Jarry rendered these anti-signs capable of signifying
both of these dimensions: action and reaction, the given and the revolt, and
this because the very substance of the anti-sign contains these realities. Signs
are deformed and thus invented in accordance with the invention of Ubu, and
with him, his universe.
Merdre! constitutes the definitive challenge, a provocative projectile
hurled by Ubu at his audience. Plurivalent, however, it also signifies the
hero's personal enterprises and indeed his actual existence: in this universe of
transvaluation, that of the anti-sign, coveted excrement becomes choice
nourishment for Ubu's gigantic intestine, a world in itself. By virtue of its
intercalated r, which in this context phonetically symbolizes the cavernous
rumblings of Ubu's digestion and his rampages to satisfy his insatiable
appetite, "merdre" is what Ubu does and what he is. This uvular liquid
sound, whose emission requires but an amorphous open buccal cavity, when
articulated in the context of this anti-sign, serves as the very pivotal focus of
the universe, spontaneously and abruptly called into existence by the trans-
mission of the neologism. Ubu's childlike vulgarity reveals itself via the
addition of the second syllable to the signifier. The cosmogonic sign-as-

5 Michel Arrive defines a lexico-stylistic system as"un systeme lexical qui se manifeste non
dans une langue naturelle, mais dans un langage de connotation de la categorie dite 'texte
litteraire' " (Les Langages de Jarry, p. 301)

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UBU 589

talisman, due to the insertion of a supplementary phoneme, is the cr

utterance that signals Ubu's political coup and the establishment of his va
system as the law of the land. Orthographically, only three signifiers in
roi appear in capital letters: MA, MES, MERDRE, implying the integra
of the neologism to Ubu's egocentric person. As the most privileged entr
Ubu's lexicon, "merdre" is happily applied to people and objects in h
universe, which really only exists in proportion to Ubu himself: he t
addresses his officer as "garcaon de ma merdre," and his wife as "Madame
ma merdre"; she herself incorporates the anti-sign into her own vocabula
as evident in "choux-fleurs a la merdre" which actually signifies "cho
fleurs a la mode ubuesque."
Enamored of hispompe a merdre, in Ubu cocu, Ubu proceeds to inform his
universe with overflowing, impure matter, precisely by his utterance of the
anti-sign "merdre" which reproduces that matter in its material form. This
propagation structures the needs and the individual tastes of the populace, a
structure entirely dependent upon "merdre" and the "merdre" machine,
generative and absorptive of the substance. Scytotomille, a shoe salesman,
hawks his wares: "Voici, Monsieur, un excellent article, quoique innomma-
ble, la specialite de la maison, les Ecrase-Merdres. De meme qu'il y a
differentes especes de merdres, il y a des Ecrase-Merdres pour la pluralite des
gouts" (Ubu cocu, III.iv). By naming the unnamable, Ubu has created a
universe: it is the utterance itself that renders existent that which was non-
existent prior to the act of naming. The installation of the machine invented
by Ubu signals the commencement of his personal rule. One of his subjects
complains, "O mais c'est que, y a point moyen de rester chez moi. Monsieur
Ubu ma signifie depuis longtemps, voyez-vous bien, d'avoir a passer la porte;
et d'ailleurs il a installe, sauf votre respect, une pompe a merdre, voyez-vous
bien, dans ma chambre a coucher" (Ubu cocu, III.ii). Indeed, the menacing
battle cry of Ubu roi, "MERDRE," has been replaced by "A la machine!" ( UC,
III.ii). This extraordinary machine establishes the equivalence between
merdre and cervelle, become unconventional but motivated synonyms, and
likewise for cervelle and phynance, since merdre and phynance had previ-
ously been equated in Ubu roi, as we shall see. Thus the appropriation of the
people's phynance/merdre, necessary to sustain Ubu's life, by means of the
pompe a merdre, becomes the act of decervelage. Ubu's converts and hench-
men march to the Song of Disembraining: "Dans l'grand trou noir d'ousqu'on
n'revient jamais / Voila c'que c'est qu'd'aller s'prom'ner l'dimanche / Ru'd'-
l'Echaude pour voir decerveler," and its refrain, "Voyez, voyez la machin'
tourner, / Voyez, voyez la cervell' sauter, / Voyez, voyez les rentiers trembler
. . . / Hourra! Cornes-au-cul, vive le Pere Ubu!" (Ubu cocu, III.iii).
Not surprisingly, "phynance" is often interchangeable with "merdre" in
Ubu's lexical system. It too undergoes a graphemic transformation rendering
"phy" (and in this context its allograph "fi" with which it enters into free
variation) a morpheme symbolizing Ubu's sadistic instinctual being and
concomitantly the victim of his retribution, that is, the pre-ubuesque order of

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590 FRENCH REVIEW

which the Financiers are a prime exponent. Thus "phynance," due to its
manipulation and its association with "merdre," signifies the abhorrerlt
ontological modality of the bourgeois capitalist while being the very sub-
stance Ubu abusively extracts from his subjects and literally assimilates,
becoming none other than Ma^2re des Phynances. "Phynance" effectively
becomes the raw material upon which Ubu's sustenance depends. Signs with
which it enters into syntagmatic relationships serve to reinforce Ubu's sub-
stance (and his essence, since they are indentical): instruments he uses to
obtain "phynance" such as his sabre a finance, croc a finances, pistolet a
phynance, etc., mere extensions of himself, are illustrative. He synony-
mously calls upon his sabre a merdre and his croc a merdre with reference to
his tools of torture. A favorite expletive cornefinance likewise emphasizes the
relationship between Ubu's sadism and his being. King Ubu himself afElrms,
"De tous cotes on ne voit que des maisons brulees et des gens pliant sous le
poids de nos phynances" (Ubu roi, III.vii), and he repeatedly exclaims "corne
d'Ubu!" It becomes increasingly explicit that Ubu's seizure of power and
subsequent actions (that define his reality) intimately rely on "phynance."
Once in power he removed his predecessors from his kingdom by forcing them
down the trap door. The trap door represents Ubu's brutal imposition of his
way of life. Alluding to that scene in Ubu roi in which the Nobles, Magis-
trates, and Financiers are summarily disposed of, Ubu advises that "la
beaute du theatre a phynance git dans le bon fonctionnement des trappes"
( Ubu cocu, II.ii).
"Physique" completes the triangular paradigm. It too participates in the
morphophonetic act by which meanings are produced in Ubu's universe,
sharing with "phynance" a homophonous morpheme, signifying no referent
external to the textual system but rather signifying inclusion in that very
universe. Once again, the anti-sign signifies the physical conditions of Ubu
himself: his corporeal interest directs his activities, his interpersonal rela-
tionships, his mood. Ubu's "physique" informs the new realm (the inverted
world of the Antichrist) and founds its justice, a system maintained through
the use of Ubu's baton a physique, the perfect emanation of his person. Ubu's
sole concern is to attend to his physical well-being; he will pursue any
program capable of guaranteeing him a full belly and a roof over his gro-
tesque head. Naturally, his batons, crocs, pistolets, and cornes a merdre, as
well as a phynance and a physique serve to procure him gastric satisfaction
and thereafter to protect the coward. When threatened by an imminent
military invasion, Ubu royally announces, "Quant a nous, nous nous tien-
drons dans le moulin a vent et tirerons avec le pistolet a phynances par la
fenetre, en travers de la porte nous placerons le baton a physique, et si
quelqu'un essaye d'entrer gare au croc a merdre!!!" ( Ubu roi, IV.iii). Both the
paradigmatic relationship of the signs and their role in Ubu's lexicon (as well
as in his universe) are made eminently explicit by Ubu himself, who indicates
his military arsenal: "Les Russes ne sont pas loin et nous aurons bientot a
estocader de nos armes, tant a merdre, qu'a phynances et a physique" ( Ubu
roi, IV.iii).

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UBU 591

Ubu's cumbersome presence is reproduced by that sign, which by its

sonority evokes the amorphous mass and baseness of its bearer: the famous
gidouille. One of Ubu's favorite words, gidouille symbolizes his enormous
stomach and the "gut" level of his responses. It too forms compound mor-
phemes in such expressions as cornegidouille. It is a sign invented by Jarry,
possibly derived from its similarity to the verb ouiller (to fill a cask as the
level of its content diminishes) which approximates Ubu's devotion to his
intestinal needs and implies his tactics used to guarantee the unbroken
continuation of his self-gratification. Ouiller also indicates, by definition, the
transfer of matter, and in exactly the same process of assimilation and
rejection, input and output, that we associate with Ubu. His gidouille must
be kept well-balanced in order for it to function properly: "Nous faisons en ce
moment notre digestion, et la moindre dilation de notre gidouille nous ferait
perir a l'instant" (Ubu cocu, II.iii). The proper functioning ofthe gidouille is
imperative to Ubu's survival. There also appears to be a rapport between
gidouille and its quasi-minimal pair andouille, likewise a preferred word in
Ubu's lexicon and definitely related to Ubu's porcine qualities and appear-
ance. In addition, the suffix -ouille has a pejorative connotation as manifested
in the infamous nickname attributed to Jarry's despised physics professor,
Monsieur Hebert: Ebouille. Because of its morphophonetic characteristics,
gidouille represents Ubu's presence and his interactions with his universe.
This becomes explicit in a version of Ubu cocu entitled Ubu cocu ou
l'Archetopte'ryx, in which the entire first acttakes place inside the Gidouille: it
has literally become the universe. Ubu's soul, a character in the play, affirms,
"Et comme Platon distingue trois ames, ce qui n'est pas trop pour notre
volume, je suis l'ame de la Gidouille" (Ubu cocu ou l'Arche'opte'ryx, I.v), thus
equating Ubu and the Gidouille as we might have expected.
The baton a physique exercises a privileged function in Ubu's universe. We
may only appreciate its full import by examining its role in Ce'sar Ante'christ,
the work in which its relationship to Ubu is established. This invention has
no reference external to the textual system and signifies exclusively in Ubu's
universe, which it, in fact, generates. It signifies the inception of that
universe, its existence, and its informing principle. Sign and anti-sign, day
and night, diastole and systole, being and non-being, all opposites are equiva-
lent: this is the message transmitted by the rotation of the baton a physique
on its axis, alternatingly the minus sign and the plus sign. Clearly infused
with ultimate power-that of the sphere with which Ubu is isomorphic-the
baton is a totalizing force: "MOINS-EN-PLUS, tu es le hibou, le sexe et
l'Esprit, l'homme et la femme.... Zenith et Nadir, pole et pole.... Axiome
et principe des contraires identiques, le pataphysicien ... est par toi
l'Antechrist et Dieu aussi, cheval de l'Esprit, Moins-en-Plus, Moins-qui-es-
Plus, cinematique du zero restee dans les yeux, polyedrique infini.... Tu es
le hibou, le sexe et l'Esprit, hermaphrodite, tu crees et detruis" (Cesar
Antechrist, II.vi). Thanks to the Baton, Cesar Antechrist (Ubu) recognizes
that he contains everything within himself (cf. the Gidouille), that he and
Christ are but two faces of the head of Janus: "je n'ai point a me retourner

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592 FRENCH REVIEW

pour montrer ma double face. L'etre qui a de l'intelligence peut voir ces deux
contraires simultanes, ces deux infinis qui coexistent" (CA, IV.vii). Thus,
like the other syntagmatic grouping generated by physique, the baton-a-
physique indicates the identity between Ubu and his universe (they are
physically one and the same) by virtue of the binary process of assimilation
and rejection. The baton-a-physique further serves to establish Ubu-as-An-
techrist's instinctive phallic sadism. Addressing the baton, the Templar
exclaims, "Phallus deracine, NE FAIS PAS DE PAREILS BONDS!" (CA,
II.vi). Ubu's essence has thus been exteriorized in the obvious form of the
baton. The baton-a-physique is Ubu. The Antichrist and Christ signify the
Phallus (mediated metaphorically by the baton-a-physique)-and vice-
versa-which subsumes all contradictions and is All. Indeed, as Michel
Arrive points out, the divine quality of the phallus is revealed by the
Templar's allusion to Lautreamont's Les Chants de Maldoror, of which the
third includes an identical apostrophe by God to his hair, left in a brothel
(Arrive, p. 137). There can remain no doubt of the baton's divinity: with
reference to God, in another of Jarry's works (Gestes et opinions du Docteur
Faustroll, pataphysicien), we discover the intertextual allusion "Nous repon-
drons que Son prenom n'est pas Jules, mais Plus-et-Moins" (livre VIII, ch. 41),
clearly establishing the fact that the baton and God are identical. The baton
also signifies Ubu. Syllogistically, then, Ubu is God, a condition reinforced in
other instances by means of the linguistic system. The fact that Ubu and the
Phallus (and thus the baton) are identical-and thus that Ubu too is divine
and autogenerative-appears substantiated as well by the existence of the
Palotins, Ubu's faithful servants. Born of the sphere, they owe their name to
the pal, etymologically linked to the phallus and the well-known instrument
of torture. Impalement is the punishment for transgression that Ubu inflicts
on Achras in Ubu cocu.
Achras too is his name. He devotes his whole life to writing his treatise on
the mores of polyhedrons. This classical mind, whose tranquil study is
perrnanently disrupted by Ubu's entry, finds its perfect expression in the
Greek word become the name Achras. His name signifies his being and his
activities, governed by logic and calm, categorically opposed to Ubu who
ravages all semblance of the life Achras led prior to his intervention. Impor-
tantly, it is not via its conventional referential meaning ("pear tree") that the
name signifies in Ubu's universe, but its very form, the fact that it is Greek.
To return to physique as a model for relations in przsentia, perhaps
pataphysique best illustrates the way in which signs acquire meaning in
Ubu's world. This sign signifies the entire system of functions operant where
Ubu roams. By amalgamating the bound morpheme pata- to the free form
physique, Jarry succeeded in creating a complex form that refers not to any
object or situation external to the linguistic circumstances in which it occurs,
but to the relationship between all objects and situations within the lingllistic
system of the text. Given that the objects and situations internal to that
system exist as signs, pataphysique acquires a referential function precisely

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UBU
593

as that science which regulates the relationship among signs. Ultimately,

Ubu's universe is a linguistic one which adds to Roland Barthes' query
regarding Phedre, "to name or not to name," the corollary enigma, "how to
name."
Once again the phonetic articulation of the morpheme pata, functioning
differentially with regards to baton a, corne, etc., reproduces the essence of
its signification. All phonological criteria point to the opposition between the
consonants /p/ and /t/ and the vowel lal. Aside from the general consonantal
and vocalic articulatory distinctions, specific binary features split optimally
between these particular consonants and this particular vowel. The optimal
consonant is a voiceless stop such as Ipl or /t/ in opposition to voiced vowels
ar ticulated with no restriction of air passage. Furthermore, the labial /p/ and
the dental /t/ are, with regard to their formants, the most diffuse consonants,
having the lowest energy output, and have, with respect to articulation, a
small resonating cavity in front of the point of constriction (Helmholz). On
the contrary, /a/ is the most compact vowel, having a large cavity in front of
the point of constriction (forward-flanged), thus the greatest increase in
energy (and loudness). While Ip/ and /t/ are optimal consonants, /a/ is the
ideal vowel. The binary opposition between /p/ and /a/ as well as /t/ and /a/ is
substantiated by both articulatory and acoustic criteria. Furthermore, the
two consonants are themselves opposed in that the peripheral /p/ is grave
while the medial /t/ is acute with respect to tonality. These oppositions are
fundamental to phonemic patterning and stratification. Jakobson and Halle
point out that

ordinary child language begins, and the aphasic dissolution of language preceding
its complete loss ends with what psychopathologists have termed the "labial stage."
In this phase speakers are able to produce only one type of utterance, which is
usually transcribed as /pa/. From the articulatory point of view the two constituents
of this utterance represent polar configurations of the buccal tract.... The diffilse
stop with its maximal reduction in the energy output offers the closest approach to
silence, while the open vowel represents the highest energy output of which the
human vocal apparatus is capable This polarity . . . appears primarily as a contrast
between two successive units-the optimal consonant and the optimal vowel . . . the
universal model of the syllable.6

Indeed, every known language utilizes the dichotomy grave/acute and com-
pact/diffuse, while other oppositions are not always obligatory (ibid., p. 439).
It is axiomatic thatpata is the most fundamental, universal speech act, the
segmentalization of the primary phonemic triangle:

a
/ \
p t [ibid., p. 438].

Whence Ubu as pataphysicien par excellence. The primary precept of Ubu's

6 Jakobson and Halle, "Phonology in Relation to Phonetics," in Bertil Malmberg, ed.,

Manual of Phonetics (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1970), pp. 411-49.

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 FRENCH REV

594

pata
and night, reality and dream, plus and minus. Opposites are subsumed by the
infinite, the totality, the 1miversal, incarnated by Ubu, whose undifferen-
tiated ego includes the entire world, whose pre-logical speech is consubstan-
tial with his being. Accordingly, the nature of the cosmos depends upon the
individual. Binary schemas, emphasizing the traditional conflict between
these two realities (microcosmic self and macrocosmic world, the signifier and
the signified) are essentially nullified by the unsocialized individual who is
All. Pataphysique thus constitutes the science of the virtual, explored by the
individual imagination. All things being equal (because opposite), this sci-
ence simultaneously illustrates unity and duality; something is itself and its
opposite. This principle manifests itself in the speech of Bosse-de-Nage, the
faithful servant of Docteur Faustroll, pataphysician, himself an avatar of
Ubu, the original pataphysician. Bosse-de-Nage expresses himself uniquely
by the "tautological monosyllable" Ha ha. Jarry comments that
il est plus judicieux d'orthographier AA, car l' aspiration h ne s'ecrivait point dans la
langue antique du monde.... A juxtapose a A et y etant sensiblement egal, c'est la
forrnule du principe d'identit6: une chose est elle-meme. C'en est en meme temps la
plus excellente refutation, car les deux A difFerent dans l'espace, quand nous les
ecrivons, sinon dans le temps, comme deux jumeaux ne naissent point ensemble,-
emis par l'hiatus immonde de la bouche de Bosse-de-Nage. [Gestes et opinions, livre
IV, ch. 291

Reminiscent of the head of Janus, a propicious metaphor for the pataphysical

universe, "Ha ha" functions linguistically in the identical manner as does the
morpheme pata, that is, it formally imitates its value.
Implicit in the fact that pataphysics is the science of the virtual, the
pataphysician uses his science in order to discover all possible things via the
resolution of all contradictions. Pataphysics thus explains the "supplemen-
tary" universe, "que peut-etre l'on doit voir a la place du traditionnel" (ibid.,
II, 8), that is the universe of Ubu, existent in and by its signs. It is significant
to note that in Gestes et opinions the authorship of Cesar Antechrist is
attributed to Ubu. "Et de la disparite du signe Plus et du signe Moins, le R.P.
Ubu, de la Cie de Jesus, ancien roi de Pologne, a fait un grand livre qui a pour
titre Cesar Antechrist, ou se trouve la seule demonstration pratique, par
l'engin mecanique dit baton a physique, de l'identite des contraires" (VII, 39).
And opposites are identical first and foremost in the lexico-stylistic system
which equates the world of the sign to that of the anti-sign or to silence.
Consequently, Ubu must be meant to be the author of Ubu roi, since it
appears as an act of Cesar Antechrist. Ubu created himself: whence again the
divinity of the pataphysician. This fact is further illustrated when Faustroll
responds to the question "Etes-vous chretiens?" with the categorical affirma-
tion "Je suis Dieu" (Gestes et opinions, III, 14).
The first reference to Ubu's science does not name it explicitly; however, its
capabilities are irrefutably hinted at. In Ubu roi, dissatisfied with his means
of transportation, Ubu promises himself, "quand nous serons de retour en

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UBU
595

Pologne, nous imaginerons, au moyen de notre scienc

des lumieres de nos conseillers, une voiture a vent po
l'armee" (Ubu roi, IV.iii). In Ubu cocu, though, Ubu i
Achras by means of his calling card which reads, "Mons
de Pologne et d'Aragon, docteur en pataphysique." Fa
lack of comprehension on the part of Achras, Ubu expl
est une science que nous avons inventee et dont le beso in
ment sentir" (Ubu cocu, I.iii). Thus "hyperphysical" U
pompe a merdre, wielder of the baton a physique, i
universally needed science, pataphysics. "Ce n'est pas qu
par notre science en pataphysique, faire surgir de te
exquis" (Ubu cocu, II.ii), declares Ubu, indicating th
capacity of pataphysics and by means of the possessive
ship to himself. Although in Ubu enchauze Ubu has
French ("je parlais francJais quand nous etions en Pologn
forfeits his role as pataphysician, and continues to refe
physique." Indubitably, Ubu, whether king or slave,
sochist, Christ or Antichrist, is above all the suprem
pataphysically resolving all oppositions, much as a mirr
neously two inverted worlds, equal but, and because, op
It goes without saying that Jarry literally adored lang
universe puns abound (he counsels Perd-de-Famille a
Arts), neologisms are de rigueur, cliches are renovated (
Pere Ubu's "Eh! la merdre n'etait pas mauvaise" with:
Ubu roi), blazons constitute segmental phonemes (Chef,
in a linear configuration spell the Old French TOY
Antichrist's question, "Qui sera roi?"), and the pomp of
the circumstance. Jarry's genius was to have create
coherent universe whose existence strictly imitated the
Jarry attributed to the sign the ultimate power of divinity:
image.

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

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