Superman een moderne roman

Alfred Jarry’s The Supermale is a bizarre mingling of science fiction and surrealism. The protagonist of this short story, Andre Marcueil, sets out to exceed the normal capacities of humanly endurance and strength. Essentially, the plots pièce de résistance is a race between a tandem of five

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cyclists and a train. The race lasts five days and is 10,000 miles with the only nourishment being ‘Perpetual Motion Food’. And, towards the end of the book, Andre is firmly resolved in copulating more than 82 times with a single woman, who he eventually (trying not to spoil the story) kills.
The opening line, “The act of love is of no importance, since it can be performed indefinitely,” said by Andre, sets this piece of literature rolling. One can almost note that, within the pages of this extremely and profusely mechanical piece, there is a twofold plotline that reveals itself at the end. First, there is the comical race that is undoubtedly a proto-science fiction fabrication. The Supermale was written in 1902, but set in 1920; this was an era of industry and machinery. Moreover, it was an era, philosophically speaking, of the tyranny of mechanics and how people were subjects to these inhuman metallic entities. With that said, it is obvious that the “Supermale” is just an attempt to integrate machine and humanity; it is a way to conform the two discrete beings into a single force. The first plot is the machine vs. man.
The race of cyclists and the train can be seen, in my opinion, as a metaphor for the race between machinery and mankind. Also, towards the end of the book, Andre, after being hooked up to a contraption (a machine) that is designed to summon love in him-due to his 82 sexual enterprises, implicating that he is devoid of love, actually caused the machine to feel love. This is an example of how man needs to regain control of the machinery.
The second plot is a love story; a love story that is fantastically interwoven into the main scheme. This sub-plot gives the main theme more depth. Andre’s friend Elson, the chemist who made the Perpetual Motion Food, had a daughter. This same daughter was the woman who Andre copulated with 82 times. She falls madly in love with this eccentric man, but he sees her as a proof of his feats and a symbol of his endeavors. Andre has reached a level of dehumanization, and became a machine. The Supermale is a paradox; he is a human beyond humanly capabilities, but hardly is he remotely human. Andre is eventually hooked up to a machine that is designed to effuse love in him; however, he overpowers it and instills love in the machine.
I found this book to be a great piece of bizarre, droll literature of the 20th century. Highly recommend it to anyone interested in Surrealist and Science Fiction Literature.

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