The Supermale (Paperback)

~ (Author), Ralph Gladstone (Translator), Barbara Wright (Translator, Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Fiction. "The act of love is of no importance, since it can be performed indefinitely." With that remark, the gentleman adventurer Andre Marcueil sets into motion an outrageous plot of scientific experiments and technological heroism focused on author Alfred Jarry's trinity of obsessions: sex, alcohol, and bicycles. Like a mock Jules Verne, Jarry describes the manner in which the "Supermale" ultimately proves his claim; after 82 times with a woman, attending doctors hook him up to a machine instead, with whom he merges in the book's--and the Supermale's--final climax. This 1902 novel is, together with EXPLOITS AND OPINIONS OF DOCTOR FAUSTROLL, PATAPHYSICIAN (1898), one of the pillars of Pataphysics, Jarry's "science of imaginary solutions." Translated from French by Ralph Gladstone and Barbara Wright.

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Exact Change (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878972251
• ISBN-13: 978-1878972255
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #747,645 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars surprisingly compelling; seriously surreal, September 3, 1999

By	Dan Mohr "danmohr" (New Orleans, LA United States) - See all my reviews

One often takes French proto-surrealist literature with a grain (or spoonful) of salt, perhaps due to the hollow stigma which Breton and others rendered the word 'surrealism.' This novel by the maniac Jarry was a helpful reminder that he and Apollinaire and a few others were really getting at something compelling. Jarry's Supermale is an hyperbolic monster of masculinity, riding 10000 miles on a bicycle at the speed of a locomotive to proclaim his desire for a certain woman, with which woman he proceeds, in order to prove a point, to copulate a total of 82 times in 24 hours. However, Andre Marceuil is clearly a self-portrait; descriptions of him read uncannily closely to Jarry's own physiognomy. Marceuil is a man intent on living his art, without pretentions or assistance. The sex that occupies the latter 40 pages of this rather short novel (80 pages total) is surprisingly sensitive and crazy, especially during a launch into a poetic hymn to Helen of Troy. Altogether a touching and inspirational nugget of strange virtuosity. Read it and regain your faith in the true surrealism. (if you have lost it.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sci-Fi Novel of the Greatest Magnitude..., December 28, 2008

By	Twisted Knickers Publications "Cheryl Anne Ga... (USA) - See all my reviews

Our protagonist Andre Marcueil had grand ideas...so grand that his "Everyday ordinariness became extraordinary."

Andre firmly believes that human capacity has no limits. He believed it so fervently that he would risk his life in a ten-thousand mile race with a steam locomotive at speeds greater than 300 miles per hour with no rest and no sustenance, save the cubes of perpetual motion food, then to copulate with the same woman 82 times in twenty-four hours, and to recharge an electric chair designed to produce love.

Braggadocio? Maybe, or maybe his futuristic ideas held something of substance, something an ordinary mind could not possibly grasp hold of. Andrew Marcueil - Hercules, Frankenstein, or Supermale?

The fusion of man and machine is not that uncommon a theme, but Jarry takes our protagonist one step further into the surreal, envisioning a better human race, where the age old philosophies of man are not only limited but are pointless idiocies. The self-inflicted trials and tribulations our protagonist endures in this story are beyond reason and ultimately absurd. But for all the absurdity, it is the story of a man's search for himself - a better self. 1920, a time of great change in the world, the dawn of the modern age, Jarry brings into question how humans can take the manifestations of their minds and thrust them into reality, and yet, with all the trinkets and machines our genius minds invent, none of them seem to better us as people.

Above all, discretely woven into this tale is a love story, a heart wrenching sad love story. And what of love? Could someone as cruel and heartless as our protagonist actually love? Love being something beyond infinite and ungraspable - a shadow. "The act of love is of no importance, since if can be performed indefinitely." For our protagonist, love is an absurdity...a sentiment...not quite and act...more of an enfeebled sensation. In order find love, one must understand God. Would Andre ever understand...could he understand? Could he see God in himself, even though his egotistical mania filled him with the belief that he actually was God. Even Jarry himself had his doubts: "If nothing is sacred and everything is absurd and meaningless, the logical conclusion is self-annihilation." Jarry was not far from the truth, even then. Love is not a means to an end - it is the end in itself, for without it, no matter how many contraptions we strap to our backs, we will perish. We are the only machines that have the capacity to generate love, and in that lies the truth: The human capacity for love is limitless.

Jarry's prose is eloquent and refined...a delicate balance of theorem and conjecture without the loss of poetry. Surrealist and Sci-Fi fans alike will be pleased with the implications of this story.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvel and Laugh at the Patriarchy, December 19, 2002

By A Customer

From the turn of the last century comes this surrealistic novel that will make you laugh at the Patriarchy and its obsessions with Technology and Phallocracy. The great Poet and Pataphysician Alfred Jarry could see, using hallucinogenic insight, the foibles and evils of his own enculturated hyper-masculinity. What a vision. Not to be missed !!