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The Supermale by Alfred Jarry (1902) raises, with apparent playfulness, the question of the relationship between desire, jouissance, and love. However, the subtitle of “A Modern Novel” raises an altogether different question. Indeed, what does “modern” mean in this case? Does it imply that the plot is borrowed from science fiction? This paper argues that Jarry’s novel owes its form to the fictional character of modern science. It demonstrates why and how the modernity of the novel means that the experience of thought, which all modern novels imply, is a form of “ideal experiment.”