Remembering Alfred Jarry (8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907), French writer best known for his play Ubu Roi (1896), who also invented the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics ("the science of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments"). Although associated with the Symbolist movement, his play is often cited as a forerunner to Dada, and the Surrealist and Futurist movements of the 1920s and '30s. He wrote plays, novels, poetry, essays and speculative journalism, in a variety of hybrid genres and styles, prefiguring postmodern and absurdist concepts in literature and philosophy.

Ubu Roi brought fame to the 23-year-old Jarry, and he immersed himself in the fiction he had created. The actor Gémier had modeled his portrayal of Ubu on Jarry's own staccato, nasal vocal delivery, which emphasized each syllable (even the silent ones). From then on, Jarry would always speak in this style. He adopted Ubu's ridiculous and pedantic figures of speech; for example, he referred to himself using the royal we, and called the wind "that which blows" and the bicycle he rode everywhere "that which rolls."

Living in worsening poverty, neglecting his health and drinking excessively (absinthe and ether his preferred poisons), he became a legendary and heroic figure to the young writers and artists of Paris, including Guillaume Apollinaire, Pablo Picasso, André Salmon and Max Jacob.