Explorations into areas of Topographical Uncertainty
Discover curated explorations into topographical uncertainty—a literary journey through books on shifting landscapes and unstable realities. Featuring Alfred Jarry’s *Doctor Faustroll*, J. G. Ballard’s *The Crystal World*, and Fernando Arrabal’s *Guernica*, this list maps the surreal, the pataphysical, and the disorienting in fiction and drama. Ideal for readers seeking avant-garde, mind-bending explorations of place and perception.
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Guernica, and Other Plays
by Fernando Arrabal
The celebrated Spanish playwright Fernando Arrabal, who lived in Madrid under the oppression of the Franco regime, writes passionately of human atrocity and of hope. This collection of plays embodies Arrabal's "theatre of panic," named after the god Pan. The homme panique is a man who refuses to take risks, who avoids danger and therefore heroism, who avoids the irreparable act, but who, ironically, is caught up in a world of chance that forces him to make choices. The collection includes Guernica, an earthy verbal re-creation of Picasso's famous painting, in which an old Basque couple is caught in the air raids; And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers, a violent protest against the Franco regime; the ingenious and poetic The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria; and Garden of Delights, which explores the lesbian tendencies of strong adoles-cent attachments and the sadomasochistic experience of adult love. Includes: 'Guernica' 'And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers' 'The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria' 'Garden of Delights'
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The Crystal World
by J. G. Ballard
On his way into the African jungle to visit his friends, Dr. Sanders becomes increasingly aware of the forest's bizarre petrification.
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Exploits & Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician
by Alfred Jarry
The singular novel by the legendary author of the play, UBU ROI, is a book that can only be compared to Rabelais or Sterne. FAUSTROLL recounts the adventures of the inventor of PATAPHYSIC, the 'science of imaginary solutions.' Jarry would have found an audience more readily if he had simply written a work of science fiction, a symbolist narrative, a bawdy tale or a spriritual allegory. As it is, FAUSTROLL is all of these at the same time.' - Roger Shattuk'
