Our President Ubu

[djAdvocate]

I have been reflecting since well before Trump became president how closely he hews to the image in my mind created by a 19th century playwright.

I am wondering if any of you that know this play can say that, as well?  if so, lmk.  if not, read this:

The only character I can think of in the world literature who resembles Donald Trump is Père Ubu in the play Ubu Roi (“Ubu the King”) by Alfred Jarry that famously opened and closed in Paris on December 10, 1896, after starting a riot. A parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and now a classic of the theater of the absurd and the forerunner of the Dada and Surrealism movements, the play is a depiction of the lust for power, full of insolent nonsense and violent horseplay. Père Ubu is a buffoonish pretender to the throne of Poland, a brutal and greedy megalomaniac who, after killing off the royal family, starts murdering his own population in order to rob them of their money. One audience member at the premiere of the play, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, was aghast at what he had witnessed and reputedly said afterward: “What more is possible? After us, the Savage God.”

Recently going over some pieces I’ve written for the Daily since 2015, on the Republican primaries and debates, and the presidential election, I remember thinking of Ubu while watching Trump back then. Even in the company of such awful human beings as Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, and Carly Fiorina, Trump stood out with his boorishness and malevolence—as when he announced to rapturous cheers of the audience that he would bring back waterboarding and make it a “hell of a lot worse,” or called out to his followers to beat up a heckler at one of his rallies where those of our fellow citizens who miss the days of public lynchings came to hear their champion. I hate everyone you hate, was his message over and over again, and these numbskulls who can’t even tell the differences between an honest man and a crook nudged each other, knowing exactly whom he had in mind.

Since Trump became president, every time I told myself this man is bonkers, I remembered Ubu, realizing how the story of his presidency and the cast of characters he has assembled in the White House would easily fit into Jarry’s play without a single word needing to be changed. Everyone, I imagine, is familiar with the spectacle of his entire cabinet taking turns telling him how much they admire him. “The greatest privilege of my life is to serve as vice president to the president who’s keeping his word to the American people,” Mike Pence said. After every member of his cabinet was through slobbering, and he himself had stopped nodding in agreement, he took the opportunity to heap additional praise on himself, declaring that he is one of the most productive presidents in American history—with perhaps Franklin D. Roosevelt coming close—and everyone present concurred.

www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/11/06/year-one-our-president-ubu/

[djAdvocate]

note: the article is short. I posted about HALF of it above.

[Tennesseer]

King Ubu from your article.

[chiver78]

the thought has crossed my mind a few times, yes.

[djAdvocate]

here is the original woodcut that Jarry used:

[Tennesseer]

Bizarre. Then and now.  

[djAdvocate]

it feels weirdly prophetic.

Jarry did this play to ridicule a professor.

he never intended it to reflect reality in any way.

but man.

[teen persuasion]

Interesting. I'd never heard of Ubu the King before.

Today on Twitter, though, I did see a promo for a book to be released in October, called MacTrump, a parody of Macbeth, in iambic pentameter. It's by the same people who have done several Shakespearean takes on Star Wars.

MacTrump

While googling Ubu the King, Google suggested other things I might be interested in, including Caligula by Camus. There was another Twitter thread I was reading earlier at work (about Trump's claims to be the King of the Jews, the second coming, etc.) in which someone claimed we'd reached Caligula levels of weirdness. Nearly everyone noted how apt the comparison was, though a few thought it was insulting to good old Caligula.

Caligula levels of weirdness

[dondub]

Aug 22, 2019 18:06:18 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

here is the original woodcut that Jarry used:

Klanny.

[tallguy]

Sit, Ubu, sit.  Good dog!

[djAdvocate]

Aug 22, 2019 20:22:55 GMT -5 teen persuasion said:

Interesting. I'd never heard of Ubu the King before.

Today on Twitter, though, I did see a promo for a book to be released in October, called MacTrump, a parody of Macbeth, in iambic pentameter. It's by the same people who have done several Shakespearean takes on Star Wars.

MacTrump

While googling Ubu the King, Google suggested other things I might be interested in, including Caligula by Camus. There was another Twitter thread I was reading earlier at work (about Trump's claims to be the King of the Jews, the second coming, etc.) in which someone claimed we'd reached Caligula levels of weirdness. Nearly everyone noted how apt the comparison was, though a few thought it was insulting to good old Caligula.

Caligula levels of weirdness

Jarry was a rather obscure playwright, and he died young (34), in obscurity.

but he was responsible for a whole strain of theatre, and an large influencer

in the art world, as well.  bold action by daring individuals can make a big

difference in this world, and it is this that drives me to seek out people like AJ.

[chiver78]

Aug 22, 2019 19:36:59 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

it feels weirdly prophetic.

Jarry did this play to ridicule a professor.

he never intended it to reflect reality in any way.

but man.

Margaret Atwood never intended A Handmaid's Tale to be an instruction manual, either.

[happyhoix]

Tenn that picture is nightmarish.

I hadn't heard of King Ubu either, but now I need to go read that play.

[swamp]

Aug 22, 2019 21:54:38 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Sit, Ubu, sit.  Good dog!

That's immediately what I thought of.   With Putin the one saying "sit."