Greetings all
A suggestion: instead of bickering among ourselves, lets inform each other
about Foucault and his type of philosophizing. In short, I'd say this
listserve in its present condition "sucks" and does a serious disservice to
the radical texture of Foucault's epistemological revolution. From now on,
I suggest that no one type in any more of their own thoughts (unless done so
in connection with a genuine Foucauldian object); I think things would be a
lot better if we we should merely translate Foucault's words (in paragraphs)
into electronic form, thus getting them OUT THERE with the potential of
infinite reproducibility. In other words, I think that the BEST thing that
CAN EVER come out of this list would beto quote Foucault and his various (or
related) texts, or those written about him. This will certainly take less
time than coming up with inane things to say on a regular basis, and will
also prove to be more enlightening.
I'll start with the opening section of THE ORDER OF THINGS:
"This book first arose out of a passage in Borges, out of the laughter that
shattered, as I read the passage, all the familiar landmarks of my thought -
OUR thought, the thought that bears the stamp of our age and our geography -
breaking up all the ordered surfaces and all the planes with which we are
accustomed to tame the wild profusion of existing things, and continuing
long afterwards to disturb and threaten with collapse our age-old
distinction between the Same and the Other. This passage quotes a 'certain
Chinese encyclopaedia' in which it is written that 'animals are divided
into: (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking
pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present
classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine
camelhair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher,
(n) that from a long way off look like flies'. In the wonderment of this
taxonomy, the thing we apprehend in one great leap, the thing that, by means
of the fable, is demonstrated as the exotic charm of another system of
thought, is the limitation of our own, the stark impossibility of thinking
THAT."
Foucault 1970 [1966], xv.
********************************************************************************
Daniel M. Harrison
Bellamy Building, 5th FL.
Florida State University,
Tallahassee, FL 32306-2011
A suggestion: instead of bickering among ourselves, lets inform each other
about Foucault and his type of philosophizing. In short, I'd say this
listserve in its present condition "sucks" and does a serious disservice to
the radical texture of Foucault's epistemological revolution. From now on,
I suggest that no one type in any more of their own thoughts (unless done so
in connection with a genuine Foucauldian object); I think things would be a
lot better if we we should merely translate Foucault's words (in paragraphs)
into electronic form, thus getting them OUT THERE with the potential of
infinite reproducibility. In other words, I think that the BEST thing that
CAN EVER come out of this list would beto quote Foucault and his various (or
related) texts, or those written about him. This will certainly take less
time than coming up with inane things to say on a regular basis, and will
also prove to be more enlightening.
I'll start with the opening section of THE ORDER OF THINGS:
"This book first arose out of a passage in Borges, out of the laughter that
shattered, as I read the passage, all the familiar landmarks of my thought -
OUR thought, the thought that bears the stamp of our age and our geography -
breaking up all the ordered surfaces and all the planes with which we are
accustomed to tame the wild profusion of existing things, and continuing
long afterwards to disturb and threaten with collapse our age-old
distinction between the Same and the Other. This passage quotes a 'certain
Chinese encyclopaedia' in which it is written that 'animals are divided
into: (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking
pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present
classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine
camelhair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher,
(n) that from a long way off look like flies'. In the wonderment of this
taxonomy, the thing we apprehend in one great leap, the thing that, by means
of the fable, is demonstrated as the exotic charm of another system of
thought, is the limitation of our own, the stark impossibility of thinking
THAT."
Foucault 1970 [1966], xv.
********************************************************************************
Daniel M. Harrison
Bellamy Building, 5th FL.
Florida State University,
Tallahassee, FL 32306-2011