>>I find Foucault's style very sexy indeed. Varies
>>between texts, but _The Order of Things_, for example, makes me laugh aloud,
>>which I always find exciting.
>
>Catherine, you've said before you find MF pretty hilarious. What is it you
>find so funny about him?
Well quoting would seem a little silly as what's funny depends entirely on the contexts it's in.
-- his reflection on his own position, and his attitude to the contexts in which he works is still, for me, very refreshing. Michel De Certeau has this essay called the Laughter of Foucault (or something like that, it's not close to me). Certeau implies Foucault is having 'us' all on. That's not what I mean. I like his asides though about how people read him and what it means to do what he does. An example of this would be the English Intro and the Preface to The Order of Things.
-- I like the sense of irony at work in the way he reads, cites, engages with the ideas of others. Sticking to The Order of Things, the end of the book is funny in that way for me, both engaging and an ironic use of the images others would use against him.
-- his arguments often work by what for me are wonderfully suprising conjunctions and I like the humour in that. His reading of Las Meninas in the opening of The Order of Things, for example, sparkles for me.
When I say I find his work amusing I do, yes, mean amusing for critical work. It doesn't make me roll around on the floor or anything. But I appreciate the flair, the style of his critical work. I think it's hard to explain why something is funny and, in the end, I'm only saying it's funny for me. And I think that's all Chuck can say about the 'expression' he admires: that he admires it.
Catherine