Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Awesome Hair -- Awesome Brain: Michel Foucault

Sometimes hair can be awesome in its absence. Compare the two pictures of French intellectual giant Michel Foucault below. Do I even have to ask which hairstyle is more awesome? And his brain? This guy was really ridiculously smart. He was like the Chuck Norris of thought. His work systematically proves that no one really has a clue what is really going on. He makes Malcom Gladwell sound like a confused child. Foucault actually knocked someone unconscious once by thinking something at him.

Foucault has been one of my number one guys for a long time. His life and work are absolutely facinating. I recommend Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison as his most accessible work. His History of Sexuality is a little more difficult. But it does explain fairly clearly exactly why everything you think you know about sex is wrong. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, which explains absoluetly everything, reads like backwards upside-down Chinesse toaster blueprints. I do not recommend it because I have no idea what he is talking about.

Do not confuse Michel Foucualt with this man. This is French soccar star Zinedine Zidane. He knocked a man unconscious during the 2006 World Cup Final by ramming him in the chest with his forehead. Zinadine Zidane is also awesome.

3 comments:

Kristin and Peter said...

I took a J-term class based entirely on Foucault's History of Sexuality. Definitely interesting - definitly difficult.

my name is Amanda said...

Totally awesome brain/hair. How to bring theory to the masses? Talk about SEX!

I pulled out my theory text from Cindy Malone's class, where I read Foucault's "Power as Knowledge" from THOS Vol. 1. Along with certain phrases underlined, my notes begin as follows: "Yes!", "Yes!", "What the...?" and "Whoo hoo!"

The entire THOS has been sitting on my shelf for years. I really should read the whole thing some time.

Karine and Tom said...

I was shocked to find a picture of Foucault with hair. It was like seeing Santa without his beard. Only backwards and different.

Tom