frogs, mountains, nietzsche

The list has been very quiet of late - no doubt due to recent events.
Intellectuals such as Foucault are sorely missed in such times.

However this is a totally frivolous enquiry, just to satisfy my curiosity.

I was rereading Nietzsche, Genealogy and History and on p.89 of the
translation in Rabinow's Foucault Reader came across this sentence
'[Traditional history] accomplishes this by getting as near as
possible, placing itself at the foot of its mountain peaks, at the
risk of adopting the famous perspective of frogs.' I'm not quite sure
I like that translation: the last bit in French is 'quitte a avoir
sur eux la fameuse perspective des genouilles'. Does anybody know
what Foucault is alluding to here? I tried a google search and came
up with
1. The Japanese poet Kusano Shimpei
2. A few references in Nietzsche about people who walk with the gait
of frogs and how yuck frogs are in general
3. The Aristophanes play The Frogs.

I think the same reference has also been picked up by the ex Monty
Python crew in the episode of Ripping Yarns titled 'Across the Andes
by Frog'.
--
Clare
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Clare O'Farrell
email: panopticon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.foucault.qut.edu.au
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