Jean-Pierre Brisset
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
| Revision as of 10:29, 6 January 2008 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Current revision Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| - | {{Template}} | + | {| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5" |
| - | '''Jean-Pierre Brisset''' (La Sauvagère, ''Orne'' [[1837]] – La Ferté-Macé, ''Orne'' [[1919]]) was a [[France|French]] writer born of peasant farmers. | + | | style="text-align: left;" | |
| - | + | ||
| - | He was an [[Outsider_art|outsider writer]], much like [[Henri Rousseau]] was an outsider artist. He is a saint on the [['Pataphysics]] calendar. He was featured in Breton's ''[[Anthology of Black Humour]]''. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | His writings are in publication as of 2004. Most of his work was self-published. He has a theory that man descended from [[frog]]s. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | His best-known poem is ''[[Les dents, la bouche]]'', a poem which is [[untranslatable]] due on its reliance on [[paronymy]]. | + | |
| - | == La grande loi ou la clef de la parole == | + | |
| - | Il existe dans la parole de nombreuses Lois, inconnues jusqu'aujourd'hui, dont la plus importante est qu'un son ou une suite de sons identiques, intelligibles et clairs peuvent exprimer des choses différentes, par une modification dans la manière d'écrire ou de comprendre ces noms ou ces mots. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Toutes les idées énoncées avec des sons semblables ont une même origine et se rapportent toutes, dans leur principe, à un même objet. Soit les sons suivants: | + | |
| Les dents, la bouche.<br> | Les dents, la bouche.<br> | ||
| Line 22: | Line 12: | ||
| Les dents-là bouche.<br> | Les dents-là bouche.<br> | ||
| + | --"[[Les dents, la bouche]]" (1900) by Jean-Pierre Brisset | ||
| + | |} | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{Template}} | ||
| + | '''Jean-Pierre Brisset''' (October 30, 1837 – September 2, 1919) was a [[French literature|French]] [[outsider writer]]. He is the author of | ||
| + | ''[[La science de Dieu ou La création de l'homme]]'' (1900). | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Biography== | ||
| + | Born into a farming family of [[La Sauvagère]], Brisset was an [[Autodidacticism|autodidact]]. Having left school at age twelve to help on the family farm, he apprenticed as a pastry chef in Paris three years later. In 1855, he enlisted in the army for seven years and fought in the [[Crimean War]]. In 1859, during the war in [[Italy]] against the [[Austria]]ns. After he was wounded at the [[Battle of Magenta]], he was taken prisoner. During the [[Franco-Prussian War]], he was a second lieutenant in the 50<sup>e</sup> régiment d'infanterie de ligne. Taken prisoner again, he was sent to [[Magdeburg]] in [[Saxony]] where he learned [[German language|German]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 1871, he published ''La natation ou l’art de nager appris seul en moins d’une heure'' (''Learning the art of swimming alone in less than an hour''), then resigned from the Army and moved to [[Marseilles]]. Here he filed a [[patent]] for the "airlift swimming trunks and belt with a double compensatory reservoir". This commercial endeavor was a complete failure. He returned to Magdeburg, where he earned his living as a language teacher, developing a method for learning French, which he [[self-published]] in 1874. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Brisset became [[stationmaster]] at the [[railway station]] of [[Angers]], and later of [[L'Aigle]]. After publishing another book on the French language, he undertook his major philosophical work, in which contended that humans were descended from [[frogs]]. Brisset supported his contention by comparing the French and frog languages (such as "logement" = dwelling, comes from "l'eau" = water). He was serious about his "morosophy", and authored a number of books and pamphlets put forth his indisputable substantiations, which he had printed and distributed at his own expense. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 1912, novelist [[Jules Romains]], who had obtained copies of ''God's Mystery'' and ''The Human Origins'', set up, with the help of fellow hoaxers, a rigged election for a "Prince of Thinkers". Unsurprisingly, Brisset got elected. The Election Committee then called Brisset to Paris in 1913, where he was received and acclaimed with great pomp. He partook in several ceremonies and a banquet and uttered emotional words of thanks for this unexpected late recognition of his work. Newspapers exposed the [[hoax]] the next day. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 1919, Brisset died, aged 81, at [[La Ferté-Macé]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Posthumous reputation== | ||
| + | The ''Complete Works'' of Brisset were reprinted by Marc Décimo, Dijon, Les Presses du réel, 2001. In an essay entitled, ''Jean-Pierre Brisset, Prince des Penseurs, inventeur, grammairien et prophète'', Dijon, Les presses du réel, 2001, Marc Décimo has given a biography, explanations about Brisset's delirium about frogs as ancestors of humankind. Translations in several languages (European languages, Wolof, Armenian, Arabic, Houma, etc.) can be found in this book as well. | ||
| + | |||
| + | It also includes the major texts written about Brisset by Jules Romains, [[Marcel Duchamp]], [[André Breton]], [[Raymond Queneau]], [[Michel Foucault]]. In 2004 the ''Art of Swimming'' (as a frog) was published in paperback. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Around 2001, [[Ernestine Chassebœuf]] wrote several letters to French politicians, universities, railway stations, library directors, psychiatric hospitals, to suggest they name a street, a university, etc. after Brisset. Their answers were published on a website dedicated to him, but there is no "rue Jean-Pierre Brisset" yet. Thanks to a bequest to Jules Romain, an annual dinner in his memory was made possible until 1939. | ||
| + | Brisset is listed as a saint on the [['Pataphysics]] calendar. His writings were in print as of 2004. | ||
| - | == Paronymy == | + | ==Works== |
| - | La fameuse «grande Loi» établie par Brisset ne tient en fait compte que de la paronymie. C'est cette approximation, cette inconséquence épistémologique qui séduiront Duchamp. Un à-peu-près est le plus sûr moyen, à moindre frais, de projeter un ailleurs de la langue, de susciter un exotisme, un extérieur radical aux lois syntaxiques qui nous gouvernent et nous conditionnent. Et puis il y a ce coup d'audace surtout, qui introduit au cœur d'un corpus fantasmé comme scientifique des matériaux littéraires qui relèvent plus explicitement des Monologues de Coquelin-Cadet ou des blagues de l'Almanach Vermot. --http://www.lespressesdureel.com/extrait.php?id=9&menu= [Aug 2005] | + | * ''Œuvres complètes'', Les Presses du réel, collection L'écart absolu, Dijon, 2001 et 2<sup>e</sup> éd. 2004. |
| + | * ''Œuvres natatoires'', Les Presses du réel, collection L'écart absolu - poche, Dijon, 2001. | ||
| + | * ''La Grande nouvelle'', Édition en fac similé du Cymbalum Pataphysicum. | ||
| + | ==Linking in as of 2022== | ||
| + | *[[Tristan Tzara]] | ||
| + | *[[Comparative linguistics]] | ||
| + | *[[Ernestine Chassebœuf]] | ||
| + | *[[Anthology of Black Humor]] | ||
| + | *[[Francis Masse]] | ||
| - | == Steven Shaviro on Brisset == | + | {{GFDL}} |
| - | :"Jean-Pierre Brisset as an antidote to the anthropocentric structuralisms of Saussure, Lacan, and Chomsky. Brisset maintains that human beings are immediately descended from frogs. He supports his claim with exhaustive linguistic analyses. Our speech, he shows, is a hypostasis of frogs' croaking in the mudflats; our writing conserves the traces of their obscure hatreds, jealousies, and battles. Brisset, much like McLuhan, affirms the tactility of language, its oral and aural density, its rich, viscous materiality. He "puts words back in the mouth and around the sexual organs." Language arises out of orgasmic screams and bodily spasms. There's no clear dividing line between body and thought, or nature and culture, just as there is none between the water and the land. Language and sexuality are not the clean, abstract structures the so-called "human sciences" have long imagined them to be. Rather, they are forces in continual agitation in the depths of our bodies. --DOOM PATROLS, Chapter 4, Michel Foucault, Steven Shaviro [1995-1997] via http://www.dhalgren.com/Doom/ch04.html [Aug 2005] {{GFDL}} | + | |
Current revision
|
Les dents, la bouche. --"Les dents, la bouche" (1900) by Jean-Pierre Brisset |
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Jean-Pierre Brisset (October 30, 1837 – September 2, 1919) was a French outsider writer. He is the author of La science de Dieu ou La création de l'homme (1900).
Contents |
Biography
Born into a farming family of La Sauvagère, Brisset was an autodidact. Having left school at age twelve to help on the family farm, he apprenticed as a pastry chef in Paris three years later. In 1855, he enlisted in the army for seven years and fought in the Crimean War. In 1859, during the war in Italy against the Austrians. After he was wounded at the Battle of Magenta, he was taken prisoner. During the Franco-Prussian War, he was a second lieutenant in the 50e régiment d'infanterie de ligne. Taken prisoner again, he was sent to Magdeburg in Saxony where he learned German.
In 1871, he published La natation ou l’art de nager appris seul en moins d’une heure (Learning the art of swimming alone in less than an hour), then resigned from the Army and moved to Marseilles. Here he filed a patent for the "airlift swimming trunks and belt with a double compensatory reservoir". This commercial endeavor was a complete failure. He returned to Magdeburg, where he earned his living as a language teacher, developing a method for learning French, which he self-published in 1874.
Brisset became stationmaster at the railway station of Angers, and later of L'Aigle. After publishing another book on the French language, he undertook his major philosophical work, in which contended that humans were descended from frogs. Brisset supported his contention by comparing the French and frog languages (such as "logement" = dwelling, comes from "l'eau" = water). He was serious about his "morosophy", and authored a number of books and pamphlets put forth his indisputable substantiations, which he had printed and distributed at his own expense.
In 1912, novelist Jules Romains, who had obtained copies of God's Mystery and The Human Origins, set up, with the help of fellow hoaxers, a rigged election for a "Prince of Thinkers". Unsurprisingly, Brisset got elected. The Election Committee then called Brisset to Paris in 1913, where he was received and acclaimed with great pomp. He partook in several ceremonies and a banquet and uttered emotional words of thanks for this unexpected late recognition of his work. Newspapers exposed the hoax the next day.
In 1919, Brisset died, aged 81, at La Ferté-Macé.
Posthumous reputation
The Complete Works of Brisset were reprinted by Marc Décimo, Dijon, Les Presses du réel, 2001. In an essay entitled, Jean-Pierre Brisset, Prince des Penseurs, inventeur, grammairien et prophète, Dijon, Les presses du réel, 2001, Marc Décimo has given a biography, explanations about Brisset's delirium about frogs as ancestors of humankind. Translations in several languages (European languages, Wolof, Armenian, Arabic, Houma, etc.) can be found in this book as well.
It also includes the major texts written about Brisset by Jules Romains, Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Raymond Queneau, Michel Foucault. In 2004 the Art of Swimming (as a frog) was published in paperback.
Around 2001, Ernestine Chassebœuf wrote several letters to French politicians, universities, railway stations, library directors, psychiatric hospitals, to suggest they name a street, a university, etc. after Brisset. Their answers were published on a website dedicated to him, but there is no "rue Jean-Pierre Brisset" yet. Thanks to a bequest to Jules Romain, an annual dinner in his memory was made possible until 1939.
Brisset is listed as a saint on the 'Pataphysics calendar. His writings were in print as of 2004.
Works
- Œuvres complètes, Les Presses du réel, collection L'écart absolu, Dijon, 2001 et 2e éd. 2004.
- Œuvres natatoires, Les Presses du réel, collection L'écart absolu - poche, Dijon, 2001.
- La Grande nouvelle, Édition en fac similé du Cymbalum Pataphysicum.
Linking in as of 2022
