“We shall not have succeeded in demolishing everything unless we demolish the ruins as well. But the only way I can see of doing that is to use them to put up a lot of fine, well-designed buildings.”
Field: Playwrite, Artist, Pataphysicist.
Born: 1873.
Background: The first prophet of Absurdist Theater. At the age of fifteen Jarry and two fellow pupils at the Rennes lycee wrote a comic satire of their physics teacher, Monsieur Hebert, which would eventually become the world’s first absurdist drama: “Ubu Roi.” He was the co-publisher and contributer to the early postmodernesque review “L’Ymagier,” and the father of “Pataphysics.” He died in 1907 at the age of 34.
Works: The Pere Ubu series – “Ubu Roi” (1896), “Ubu Cuckolded” (1898), “Ubu Enchained” (1899). Novels: “The Supermale” (1902).
Lesson: The applause of silence is the only kind that counts.