Recently, the issue concerning the relationship between Deleuze and Foucalt
was brought up on this list. The following passage may help to elucidate
the type of relationship they had. The passage is taken from notes derived
from the Abecedaire interviews conducted with Gilles Deleuze.
"Parnet asks a final question about his friendship with Foucault which was
not a friendship of the couple, was deep but distant. Deleuze says that
Foucault was someone of the greatest mystery for him, perhaps because they
knew each other too late in life. Deleuze says he feels a great regret
toward Foucault, while having respected him enormously. He says that
Foucault was the rare case of a man who entered a room and everything
changed. Foucault, like all of us, was not simply a person, but rather it
was like another gust of air or something atmospheric occurred, an
emanation. Foucault corresponds, says Deleuze, to what he mentioned
earlier, about not needing to speak to appreciate and understand each
other. Deleuze's memory is particularly of Foucault's gestures, dry,
strange, fascinating, like gestures of metal and wood."
I would add some more commentary concerning the issue, but I currently have
no time.
- Phantom Overtone