Flannon Jackson was kind enough to track down and mail to me a copy
of an interview with Gilles Deleuze from 1985 in which he discusses
Foucault. The ostensible subject is Foucault's work with the GIP -
the prisoner's project he was involved with for several years. But
the short interview actually ranges over a variety of subjects,
bringing out well both the affection and comradeship and the tension
between Foucault and Deleuze. The passages on Foucault's way of
thinking, on the idea of the intellectual as "functionalist," on
"seeing" what "everybody knew" and yet was "unseen, imperceptible,"
are ones I will think about for a long time to come, I suspect.
I may post more of this later on the Foucault list, but for now I wanted
to share the closing sentences of the interview with you.
[Interviewer]: You yourself seem to have a much more fluid vision of the
social world than Foucault. People underlined his use of architectural
metaphors, diametrically opposed to your "fluidity."
[Deleuze]: I agree totally with you. I remember we talked about this when
Foucault published the first volume of _History of Sexuality_. I realized
then that we did not share the same view of society. For me a society is
something that never stops slipping away. So when you say I am more
"fluid," you are totally right: there's no better word. Society is
something that leaks, financially, ideologically -- there are points of
leakage everywhere. Indeed the problem for society is how to stop itself
from leaking. Michel was amazed by the fact, that despite all the powers,
their underhandedness and their hypocracy, we can still manage to resist.
On the contrary, I am amazed bu the fact that everything is leaking and
the government manages to plug the leaks. In a sense, Michel and I
addressed the same problem from opposite ends.
You are perfectly right to say that for me society is a fluid.
It is truely a fluid -- or worse, a gay. For Michel it was an architecture.
Cite:
Deleuze, Gilles. "The Intellectual and Politics: Foucault and the Prison."
Interview by Paul Rabinow, with Keith Gandal. May ?5, 1985. _History of
the Present_ 2 (Spring 1986): 1-2, 20-21.
Michael
--
---------------------------Michael J. Current----------------------------
mcurrent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -or- @ins.infonet.net -or- @nyx.cs.du.edu
Specializing in Philosophy, Queer Studies, Depression, & Unemployment :)
737 - 18th Street, #9 * Des Moines, IA * 50314-1031 *** (515) 283-2142
"AN IMAGE OF THOUGHT CALLED PHILOSOPHY HAS BEEN FORMED HISTORICALLY
AND IT EFFECTIVELY STOPS PEOPLE FROM THINKING." - GILLES DELEUZE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------
of an interview with Gilles Deleuze from 1985 in which he discusses
Foucault. The ostensible subject is Foucault's work with the GIP -
the prisoner's project he was involved with for several years. But
the short interview actually ranges over a variety of subjects,
bringing out well both the affection and comradeship and the tension
between Foucault and Deleuze. The passages on Foucault's way of
thinking, on the idea of the intellectual as "functionalist," on
"seeing" what "everybody knew" and yet was "unseen, imperceptible,"
are ones I will think about for a long time to come, I suspect.
I may post more of this later on the Foucault list, but for now I wanted
to share the closing sentences of the interview with you.
[Interviewer]: You yourself seem to have a much more fluid vision of the
social world than Foucault. People underlined his use of architectural
metaphors, diametrically opposed to your "fluidity."
[Deleuze]: I agree totally with you. I remember we talked about this when
Foucault published the first volume of _History of Sexuality_. I realized
then that we did not share the same view of society. For me a society is
something that never stops slipping away. So when you say I am more
"fluid," you are totally right: there's no better word. Society is
something that leaks, financially, ideologically -- there are points of
leakage everywhere. Indeed the problem for society is how to stop itself
from leaking. Michel was amazed by the fact, that despite all the powers,
their underhandedness and their hypocracy, we can still manage to resist.
On the contrary, I am amazed bu the fact that everything is leaking and
the government manages to plug the leaks. In a sense, Michel and I
addressed the same problem from opposite ends.
You are perfectly right to say that for me society is a fluid.
It is truely a fluid -- or worse, a gay. For Michel it was an architecture.
Cite:
Deleuze, Gilles. "The Intellectual and Politics: Foucault and the Prison."
Interview by Paul Rabinow, with Keith Gandal. May ?5, 1985. _History of
the Present_ 2 (Spring 1986): 1-2, 20-21.
Michael
--
---------------------------Michael J. Current----------------------------
mcurrent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -or- @ins.infonet.net -or- @nyx.cs.du.edu
Specializing in Philosophy, Queer Studies, Depression, & Unemployment :)
737 - 18th Street, #9 * Des Moines, IA * 50314-1031 *** (515) 283-2142
"AN IMAGE OF THOUGHT CALLED PHILOSOPHY HAS BEEN FORMED HISTORICALLY
AND IT EFFECTIVELY STOPS PEOPLE FROM THINKING." - GILLES DELEUZE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------