Good work, so far!

Hi. I just wanted to thank you for the great discussion we had, today. I know it's not easy to dissect Foucault, at any time of day, let alone 8 am! The key, as I said in class, is not to give up and say that's it's confusing, but to think about why it's confusing--i.e. to think about what the different elements of the argument are and how they are functioning. We might even consider that Foucault wanted to present us with a text that was calligramic or "contradictory" in the way that Magritte's painting is. (Which would be another way of thinking of text as art, even in the case of academic essays.) I think today set a great pace for our discussions in the rest of the semester, with regard to thoughtful, close reading and analysis of the texts. Your blog postings are also looking good. Keep up the good work and have a good weekend!