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"BTW, Foucault is actually readable. Who knew?!" This suggests that you have never bothered to read Foucault. He is extremely readable.
by Emma_Goldman 9y ago
"BTW, Foucault is actually readable. Who knew?!"
This suggests that you have never bothered to read Foucault. He is extremely readable.
- igravious 9y agoCome on Emma_Goldman. Don't do that. Why possibly alienate a potential reader of Foucault? You don't know what path jstewartmobile took to get them to this point. Though it may not be universally true – and it certainly might be unjustified – the Continentals (Derrida & co.) aren't exactly known for their lucid crystalline prose.
- Emma_Goldman 9y agoWhat? Well, given their dismissal of the whole of the humanities, and the ridicule with which they spoke about Foucault, I doubt they're going to be reading The History of Sexuality or The Archaeology of Knowledge anytime soon. Or am I being too defensive, and mis-judging the post? Some 'continental philosophers' are difficult to read. Derrida is a spectacularly bad writer, for instance. Foucault is not one of them however. Discipline & Punish is about as readable as Dickens IMO.
- igravious 9y ago> Or am I being too defensive, and mis-judging the post? I think so? :) Read it again – You could nitpick the absolute shit out of any non-trivial work in the humanities--even the great ones--but most people have enough sense not to. (Emphasis mine.) They are saying that there are trivial and non-trivial works in the humanities. Some non-trivial works are great works. You could nitpick those non-trivial works--even the great ones-- but you'd be wrong to because while you're busy at that you're missing the wood for the trees. To me it sounds like they've read quite a few texts from the humanities, just not Foucault.
- Emma_Goldman 9y agoAh okay, I'll go with your more charitable reading! I'm just very used to people dismissing an entire cultural and philosophical movement based on hearsay. It's not that hard to just pick up and read Foucault, Derrida, etc., and find out for yourself.
- jstewartmobile 9y agoThanks igravious for helping a brotha out!
- jstewartmobile 9y agoNope. The original remark was made with the hope of getting someone else to read Foucault. Not so much a fan as a fellow traveler though, since my sympathies are more in line with the Jacques Ellul / Ivan Illych direction.
- Emma_Goldman 9y agoMy bad! RE: Christian anarchists / Tolstoy I read Maxim Gorky's My Universities recently - a novel about his coming-of-age in late 19th century Russia. The reigning philosophy that rears its head again and again is Tolstoyan, that Gorky tries to press his Marxism against. Interesting cultural battle!
- jstewartmobile 9y agoI was talking about this guy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich) rather than the Tolstoy character, but same deal.