I learned stuff in college

From: Con

Date: Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 1:26 PM
Subject: Foucault and me.
To: Elizabeth

Dear Liz,

WHAT THE HELL?! Books are hard:

"In the era of post-aboutness in which 'I' is at the same time both dead and resurrected; it is here that we find society begins to question who or what is doing the 'talking'. Of course, what *is* doing the talking: that is, 'what' (or should I say watt?) the pancultural unit of the questioner's power over the questioned; for it is in asking 'What am I talking about?' that the questioner at once accuses himself of madness and compels the prostration of 'am' before the towering phallus of 'I'; thus he inverts the socially prescribed order with the syntactical seduction of questioning."
(Foucault 1980)

--


From: Elizabeth
Date: Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 1:52 PM

Subject: Re: Foucault and me.
To: Con

Here, let me parse it for you. Please read the following in the voice of the Movie Trailer Guy.


In the era of post-aboutness...

When 'I' is both dead and resurrected....

Society begins to ask: 'who is doing the 'talking'?

But is the question who... or WHAT.

[a light bulb sputters and dies]
[quick flash of a brightly lit interrogation room]
[close up of suspect's face, bruised and battered]

One man's question...

[the Questioner leaning over the suspect]
QUESTIONER: What am I talking about?!

One man's quest...

[the Questioner slumped against a wall, exhausted, with a female hand slinking over his shoulder]

Will lead him to the brink of madness...

[the Questioner locking himself into a straight jacket]
[in a padded room, the Questioner throws himself at the walls]
[the Suspect, manically, grins at the camera]

And through the seduction of questioning...

[against a cement wall, the Questioner violently kisses a woman in a red dress]

Begins the inversion of the socially prescribed order...

[dozens of identical prisoners march in step through a normal suburban street]
[close up on one of the prisoners - it is the Questioner]

To the compelling prostration....

[the rows of prisoners fall to their knees]
[the Questioner lies prostrate, but lifts his head]
[he sees before him an enormous, shining, dominating Letter I ]

[music: Also Sprach Zarathustra]

At the towering phallus of I.

[close-up on an eyeball. it blinks. when the lid re-opens, the eye is bloodied]

Text on screen:
THE TOWERING PHALLUS OF I
June 2009

Brought to you by the letter I and the number i.