Jarry and Me

Alfred Jarry. Born 1873, presumably of the union of M. and Mme Jarry. One feels that He was born with his Caporal, the Three-pointed moustache He made popular.

There was also nothing about His Birth that made one think: Here is a, well, Star. His UBU Plays, which are best known, were started in High School, and were based on a fellow-student s EB Plays. But UBU is UBU. His mother left His father, allegedly for No Reason, and went to Paris, taking with her Alfred and his sister: Older, undistinguished. Alfred is living with His mother, and becoming Known: for his Three-Directional Moustache and his Addiction to Absinthe. And his UBU plays.

And bear in mind this is in 1890-1895: The emergence and description of Surrealism were 20 years in the Future. But that is what Jarry was: a Pre-Surrealist, Absinthiated. A kind of worship of Jarry by Mme Rachilde, a very popular novelist, also married to Jarry s Editor. Breton, who wrote The Surrealist Manifestoin 1924, and Antonin Artaud, who took over Artistic Directorship of the Theatre Alfred Jarry, after Jarry was long dead, were both Surrealists. Both knew Him. Picasso too.

Jarry died 1907. Sort of unmourned, and that s too bad.