Pataphysica 4

Pataphysica 4 present the strange "conclusion" to Alfred Jarry's 1907 Symbolist novel The She-Dragon, Part 1 having appeared in Pataphysica 2 (iUniverse, 2004). It also holds the central, pivotal chapter of the novel, which describes a battle that, while entirely modern, reads like ancient myth, conjuring such texts as the Bhagavad-Gita and Homer's Iliad. Annotations highlight Jarry's alchemical symbolism (among other things), alchemy being the ancient "art and science" studied in secret by such modern scientist/philosophers as Gottfried Leibniz and Isaac Newton. Pataphysics is the science of imaginary solutions, and for Jarry, although there is no other imagination than the scientific, modern science has simply failed to keep up with the scientific imagination.

Rounding out this otherwise rectangular issue are the works of several returning authors as well as some new ones. They provide additional musings on such themes as Jarry's alchemical/cosmological play The Pope's Mustardmaker, an amorous veteran of an internal war, microcosm and macrocosm, a fugitive writer apparently obsessed with conspiracy theories and baseball, a peculiar Grimoire on a new set of "Glorious Mysteries," and a terrifying invocation of the Thelemic Law of Rabelais (Jarry's literary "master") as adapted by Crowley. Strap on suitable eye protection and enjoy!