Topical Guide 291
Mark Dorset
Real Places, Fictional Places
Fiction: Responding to: Suspension of Disbelief
“Herb Piper,” said Bump, pronouncing the name as if he thought it should be familiar to him. “Herb Piper,” he said again. His expression (pursed lips, twisted mouth, eyebrows drawn together) suggested that he was searching his memory for some information about Herb Piper that ought to be there. “I think I must have known a Herb Piper. You don’t look familiar, but the name sounds familiar. Ever live in Albany?”
“No,” said Herb.
“Baltimore?”
“No.”
“Didn’t work for the B & O, did you?”
“No,” said Herb. “I’ve lived in Boston all along.”
“Boston? Herb Piper. Herb Piper. Were you in France?”
“Yes. I was in France.”
“Where?”
“Quelquepart-sur-Marne.”Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 7
Our stage setting is very appropriate, because even though it’s an easy trick to lay your scene in eternity, and, for instance, to have someone shoot off a revolver in the year one-thousand-and-such, here you must accept doors that open out on plains covered with snow falling from a clear sky, chimneys adorned with clocks splitting open to serve as doors, and palm-trees growing at the foot of bedsteads for little elephants sitting on shelves to munch on. As to our orchestra that isn’t here, we’ll miss only its brilliance and tone. The themes for Ubu will be performed offstage by various pianos and drums. As to the action which is about to begin, it takes place in Poland—that is to say, nowhere.
Alfred Jarry, Preface to Ubu Roi (spoken by Jarry before the curtain at the first performance of Ubu Roi at the Théâtre de l‘oeuvre, Paris, December 10, 1896), translated by Beverly Keith and Gershon Legman (available online at Google Books)
Legends surfaced, proliferated by Apollinaire and Max Jacob (1876–1944), among others, about encounters between Pablo Picasso and Jarry. Some were undoubtedly apocryphal; they were made further credible, however, by the number of sketches of Ubu and Jarry that Picasso left behind. The painter used Ubu as a symbol for injustice and oppression during the political upheavals of the 1930s, especially those wrought by the Spanish general, Francisco Franco. As Picasso became more proficient in French, he learned passages of Jarry’s plays by heart and collected his manuscripts and other artifacts, even claiming that his pet owls were ancestors of Jarry’s birds.
See also: Places, Real and Fictional TG 64
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