Editing 'Pataphysics (section)

== Pataphor ==
The ''pataphor'' ({{langx|es|patáfora}}, {{langx|fr|pataphore}}), is a term coined by writer and musician [[Pablo Lopez (writer)|Pablo Lopez]], for an unusually extended metaphor based on Alfred Jarry's "science" of 'pataphysics'.<ref>{{cite web |title=10&nbsp;Supremely nerdy language tidbits |date=21 March 2013 |website=Listverse |url=http://listverse.com/2013/03/21/10-supremely-nerdy-language-tidbits/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150506212851/http://listverse.com/2013/03/21/10-supremely-nerdy-language-tidbits/ |archive-date=6 May 2015 |url-status=live |access-date=18 April 2015}}</ref><ref name=Pataphor>{{cite web |title=Pataphor |website=unf.edu |url=http://www.unf.edu/groups/riverhouse/Parlor/Pataphor.html |access-date=3 May 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017024714/http://www.unf.edu/groups/riverhouse/Parlor/Pataphor.html |archive-date=17 October 2016}}</ref>

As Jarry claimed that 'pataphysics existed "as far from metaphysics as metaphysics extends from regular reality", a pataphor attempts to create a figure of speech that exists as far from [[metaphor]] as metaphor exists from [[non-figurative]] language. Whereas a metaphor compares a real object or event to a seemingly unrelated subject to emphasize their similarities, the pataphor uses the newly created metaphorical similarity as a reality on which to base itself. In going beyond mere ornamentation of the original idea, the pataphor seeks to describe a new and separate world, in which an idea or aspect has taken on a life of its own.<ref>{{cite web |title=El Clarín |website=El Clarin de Chile |url=https://www.elclarin.cl/ |access-date=9 July 2022 |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite report |title=Les Cahiers du Collège de 'Pataphysique |date=22 December 2005 |publisher=Collège de 'Pataphysique}}</ref>

Like 'pataphysics itself, pataphors essentially describe two degrees of separation from reality (rather than merely one degree of separation, which is the world of metaphors and metaphysics). The pataphor may also be said to function as a critical tool, describing the world of "assumptions based on assumptions" – such as belief systems or rhetoric run amok. The following is an example:
{{blockquote|
;Non-figurative: Tom and Alice stood side by side in the lunch line.
;Metaphor: Tom and Alice stood side by side in the lunch line, two pieces positioned on a chessboard.
;Pataphor: Tom took a step closer to Alice and made a date for Friday night, checkmating. Rudy was furious at losing to Margaret so easily and dumped the board on the rose-colored quilt, stomping downstairs.<ref name=pataphorcom>{{cite web |url=http://pataphor.com/cpat.html |title=Pataphor / Pataphors: Official Site : closet 'pataphysics |website=Pataphor.com |access-date=2014-01-16 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206101215/http://pataphor.com/cpat.html |archive-date=6 December 2013}}</ref>
}}

Thus, the pataphor has created a world where the chessboard exists, including the characters who live in that world, entirely abandoning the original context.<ref name=pataphorcom />

The pataphor has been subject to commercial interpretations,<ref>{{cite web |title="Coke ... it's the Real Thing" not a real thing |date=31 January 2012 |website=Notarealthing.com |url=http://www.notarealthing.com/2010/04/coke-its-the-real-thing/ |access-date=16 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108111530/http://www.notarealthing.com/2010/04/coke-its-the-real-thing/ |archive-date=8 January 2014}}</ref> usage in speculative computer applications,<ref>{{cite web |title=Ill-Posed Philosophy |date=23 February 2006 |website=Illposed.com |url=http://www.illposed.com/philosophy/pataprogramming.html |access-date=16 January 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207183707/http://www.illposed.com/philosophy/pataprogramming.html |archive-date=7 December 2013}}</ref> applied to highly imaginative problem solving methods<ref>{{cite web |last=Findlay |first=John |date=3 July 2010 |title=Wingwams: Playing with pataphors |website=Wingwams.blogspot.com |url=http://wingwams.blogspot.com/2010/07/playing-with-pataphors.html |access-date=16 January 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221141452/http://wingwams.blogspot.com/2010/07/playing-with-pataphors.html |archive-date=21 February 2014}}</ref> and even politics on the international level.<ref>{{cite web |title=Patafísica y patáforas |publisher=El Clarín de Chile |website=Elclarin.cl |url=http://www.elclarin.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5947&Itemid=1189 |access-date=16 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131126142044/http://www.elclarin.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5947&Itemid=1189 |archive-date=26 November 2013}}</ref> [[The Firesign Theatre]] is a comedy troupe whose jokes often rely on pataphors. There is a band called Pataphor<ref>{{cite web |title=Pataphor |website=Pataphor.bandcamp.com |url=http://pataphor.bandcamp.com/ |access-date=16 January 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127151959/http://pataphor.bandcamp.com/ |archive-date=27 November 2013}}</ref> and an [[interactive fiction]] in the Interactive Fiction Database called "PataNoir", based on pataphors.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=si9s1jktywxj5vdk |title=PataNoir – Details |website=Ifdb.tads.org |access-date=16 January 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127134907/http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=si9s1jktywxj5vdk |archive-date=27 November 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://iplayif.com/?story=http%3A%2F%2Fifarchive.org%2Fif-archive%2Fgames%2Fglulx%2FPataNoir.gblorb |title=Parchment |website=Iplayif.com |access-date=16 January 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120725085738/http://iplayif.com/?story=http%3A%2F%2Fifarchive.org%2Fif-archive%2Fgames%2Fglulx%2FPataNoir.gblorb |archive-date=25 July 2012}}</ref> Pataphor is used by the Writer's Program at the [[University of North Florida]],<ref name="Pataphor" /> and has appeared in works affiliated with the [[Maria Curie-Skłodowska University]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Kowalewski |first=Hubert |year=2014 |title="The Life of Insects" as a pataphor |series=Workshop of Pataphysical Semiotics |website=serwisy.umcs.lublin.pl |url=http://serwisy.umcs.lublin.pl/hubert.kowalewski/en/articles/life-of-insects-as-a-pataphor.html |access-date=3 May 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602184130/http://serwisy.umcs.lublin.pl/hubert.kowalewski/en/articles/life-of-insects-as-a-pataphor.html |archive-date=2 June 2016}}</ref>

Pataphors have been the subject of art exhibits, as in Tara Strickstein's 2010 "Pataphor" exhibit at Next Art Fair / [[Art Chicago]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Strickstein's "Pataphor" at Next Art Fair / Art Chicago 2010 |department=Art Talk Chicago |website=ChicagoNow.com |url=http://www.chicagonow.com/art-talk-chicago/2010/05/tara-stricksteins-pataphor-at-next-art-fairart-chicago-2010/ |access-date=16 January 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109154250/http://www.chicagonow.com/art-talk-chicago/2010/05/tara-stricksteins-pataphor-at-next-art-fairart-chicago-2010/ |archive-date=9 January 2014}}</ref> other artworks,<ref>{{cite web |last=Crest |first=Russ |date=3 April 2014 |title=Website builder made with color presents: The installations of Linville and McKenzie |website=Beautiful / Decay |url=http://beautifuldecay.com/2014/04/03/website-builder-made-color-presents-installations-linville-mckenzie/ |access-date=3 May 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603003005/http://beautifuldecay.com/2014/04/03/website-builder-made-color-presents-installations-linville-mckenzie/ |archive-date=3 June 2016}}</ref> and architectural works.<ref>{{cite web |title=Swipes and changeups with Mike Nesbit |series=Features – Archinect |department=Art + Architecture |website=archinect.com |url=http://archinect.com/features/article/141826948/art-architecture-swipes-and-changeups-with-mike-nesbit |access-date=3 May 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407113310/http://archinect.com/features/article/141826948/art-architecture-swipes-and-changeups-with-mike-nesbit |archive-date=7 April 2016}}</ref> Pataphors have also been used in literary criticism,<ref>{{Cite web |title=A collaborative review of Amy Catanzano's ''Starlight in Two Million'' |date=22 May 2015 |website=Queen Mob's Tea House |lang=en-GB |url=http://queenmobs.com/2015/05/a-collaborative-review-of-amy-catanzanos-starlight-in-two-million/ |access-date=3 May 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170720225646/http://queenmobs.com/2015/05/a-collaborative-review-of-amy-catanzanos-starlight-in-two-million/ |archive-date=20 July 2017}}</ref> and mentioned in ''[[Art in America]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NEXT Art Fair |department=Events – Art in America |website=artinamericamagazine.com |url=http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/events/next-art-fair/ |access-date=3 May 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603160444/http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/events/next-art-fair/ |archive-date=3 June 2016}}</ref>

There is also a book of pataphorical art called ''Pataphor'' by Dutch artist Hidde van Schie.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pataphor – Hidde van Schie |website=TENT Rotterdam |lang=en-US |url=http://www.tentrotterdam.nl/en/event/pataphor_hidde_van_schie-2/ |access-date=3 May 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602195858/http://www.tentrotterdam.nl/en/event/pataphor_hidde_van_schie-2/ |archive-date=2 June 2016}}</ref>

In ''The Disappearance of Literature: Blanchot, Agamben, and the Writers of the No'',<ref>{{cite book |title=The Disappearance of Literature: Blanchot, Agamben, and the Writers of the No |edition=reprint |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-5013-0680-8 |lang=en}}</ref> Aaron Hillyer writes:
{{quotation|
While metaphysics and metaphors attain one degree of separation from reality, pataphors and pataphysics move beyond by two degrees. This allows an idea to assume its own life, a sort of plasticity freed from the harness of rigid representation. In other words, metaphors operate on the level of the same. They juxtapose apparently unrelated material in order to draw out subtle identities. Pataphors unsettle this mechanism; they use the facade of metaphorical similarity as a basis for establishing an entirely new range of references and outlandish articulations: a new world in the midst of the old, the novel taking to the streets. Just as Kafka sought to forge a new form of life on the basis of absolute separation from historical progress, on cultural 'intransmissibility', and just as Blanchot pursued the 'pure novel' that exists in a relationship of absolute refusal of the established world, so the pataphysician seeks to initiate a new world on the grounds of a tenuous unreality.{{page needed|date=December 2022}}
}}