His project was nothing less than the TRANSFORMATION of objective reality into his own intellectual amusement park.

His legendary drinking and social shenanigans notwithstanding, Alfred Jarry's greatest contribution to the arts (and greatest gift to the 20th century) is his play "Ubu Roi," a scathing attack on the greed, mediocrity and tyranny of the very class he was born into -- the bourgeoisie. Through his writing and through his actions (pretty outrageous stuff for the end of the 19th century), Jarry assaulted the most sacred altars of society, government and religion. His Pere Ubu -- the vile, cowardly and hyperviolent protagonist of "Ubu Roi" -- revolutionized modern literature. Specifically, with "Ubu Roi," Jarry helped give birth to one of its richest veins, the "absurdist,"or non-Aristotelian, theater. His influence, however, extends even further than that, and his effect on our own time can be found sometimes in the most unlikely of places.