ESPN, 11/19

In reading Foucault I found it very difficult and even after class it was still a little dense. He does not seem to be as straight forward as some of the other theorist we have been reading thus far. It seems I was off a little in my pre class post in the notion of difference. However I believe I did have the right idea about the notion of language and the shell gas station example. It is not only interesting to see how language works but also how are brains work and how we have been socialized to see and understand things in a similar way. The notion of difference is still quite complex to me. The exercise we did on the board was really interesting. It is crazy how much there is to language and the difference between them. The difference is what I believe was trying to be portrayed. Furthermore, the definitions themselves are different then the words may mean and there are many different words that are the same but have different meanings. There were many words all over the board and it they all essentially go in a circle in that each word can be linked to another. It is like the quote states. “Every concept is necessarily and essentially inscribed in a chain or a system, within which it refers to another and to other concepts, by the systematic play of differences.” It may be a stretch but in regards to all the words on the board, I related it to Jencks instead of how one may have thought in relating it to DeSaussure, Barthes, or Macherey. I related it Jencks in his notion of disharmonious harmony in that there is a ton of things all different in their own way but they still come together and looks good and makes sense. It is like language in that that there are many different words in a definition but they still all come together and make the specific word make sense. It is also like in general conversation in that there are tons of different arbitrary words that come together to make conversation.