You ever notice how you never see both of them at the same time in the same place? And how Foucault's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, also seems to know Michael Pollan? Seems a little fishy, if you ask me. posted by Greg Nog at 10:06 AM on June 6 [2 favorites has favorites]
What if I desire punishment? posted by geos at 10:07 AM on June 6
Post mentions Foucault, lame dismissals of "postmodernism" follow. It's just the order of things, I guess. posted by nasreddin at 10:08 AM on June 6 [15 favorites has favorites]
I think much of the current antipomo surge comes from the fact that we sat on our asses and wrote long impenetrable screeds, but we were still pretty much right about what happened in the US, while all of the manly post-Nozick types totally fucked it up. posted by mobunited at 10:32 AM on June 6 [1 favorite has favorites]
Solved it. The turtleneck always gives Foucault away. posted by sleevener at 10:46 AM on June 6
Snark locally. posted by argh at 10:47 AM on June 6
We were too out of it, playing games in our rarefied intellectual spheres, to vote for the same asshole twice because of a utilitarian benefits of a tax cut. posted by mobunited at 10:49 AM on June 6 [1 favorite has favorites]
Could there be a post comparing photos that I would care less about?
No idea who they are but the glasses give it away every time. Pollan's are the trendy narrow type. Also Foucalt's chin dimple is a dead give away in many photos. posted by podwarrior at 11:10 AM on June 6
I think much of the current antipomo surge comes from the fact that we sat on our asses and wrote long impenetrable screeds, but we were still pretty much right about what happened in the US
Tangentially: In grad school, I did an interpretive reading of Michel Foucault in the character of him pretty much on his deathbed. Project guidelines meant that I also needed to don baldcap and affected pseudo-French accent that resulted in me seeming a sort of Benjamin Button-esque bald drag king. Looking back, it had to have been awful despite the good grade it got. posted by sadiehawkinstein at 12:30 PM on June 6 [2 favorites has favorites]
Well they do look similar but most of the picture pairs have some kind of anachronism that gives away the date they were taken:
7) Pollan is wearing a "vote with your fork" shirt.
6) Pollan (i'm assuming) is at the World Economic forum in Davos, in front of a screen with their logo (Wikipedia says that confrence has been around for a while, but how long have that they had that log? and how long have people been standing in front of repeating-logo screens? seems like a pretty recent trend)
5) Pollan is wearing a modern, wireless mic. And Foucalt's picture is pretty retro (IMO)
4) Pollan is holding a carrot. The Foucalt picture is pretty timeless, but there's a pretty high contrast on the image. Someone could have done that in photoshop today, though.
3) This one is tough, but Foucalt is holding a pretty retro looking mic.
2) This one is really difficult, but the one who I think is Foucalt is wear the same glasses as in number 9, and he's got a tweed jacket, plus it's a high contrast image.
1) One is tough but the letters behind pollan look modern.
Also 9 and 10 use the publicity shot from the back of one of Pollan's books, which I recognized. 8 didn't really have anything to give away the time it was taken for sure (although there is something that looks kind of like the Cingular logo in the background) , but Pollan looks a lot like he does in the publicity shot, plus the glasses. posted by delmoi at 1:13 PM on June 6
I hardly think this is the game that's sweeping the nation! Only Numberwang has done that. posted by paddbear at 1:37 PM on June 6
Solved it. The turtleneck always gives Foucault away.
Um....I always thought it was looking like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family that always gives Foucault away. posted by mrmojoflying at 3:08 PM on June 6
As a bald man with glasses, let me just say that both are very handsome fellows. posted by smrtsch at 5:02 PM on June 6
c) Jeff Lieberman posted by DU at 6:28 PM on June 6
this was a giggle. thank you.
(jazz hands = Michael Pollan ... dead giveaway - Foucault's got more a Hamlet thing going in the gesture department) posted by jammy at 8:30 PM on June 6
Several of those are obviously John Malkovich. posted by zinfandel at 8:47 PM on June 6
come on, it's obviously Michael Pollan. posted by lacus at 10:40 PM on June 6
Wait. Foucault was postmodern? In what way, exactly? And for what definition of postmodern?
And better ideas regarding agricultural policy. posted by jb at 10:26 AM on June 7
I think you all are missing the point.
On June 25th, 1984, Michel Foucault was guided secretly from the flat in Paris where his death was staged, as his new level of enlightenment allowed him to transcend both the AIDS virus and the effects of natural aging. Disillusioned with the methods of activism he had engaged in thus far and disgusted with the young radicals who cited him as an influence, Foucault disappeared into the underground. He immediately boarded a ship sailing to America (an anachronism even then), where nine years earlier an experience with LSD had set him on the path to enlightenment. Changing his last name numerous times, Michel made his way through countless US cities, immersing himself in the language and the culture, striving to identify the roots and sources of the cancer in the American culture that was slowly spreading and threatening all life on this planet.
Writing occasionally to pay for food, Michel decided it was best to take on a more permanent pseudonym in order to build a broad audience for the knowledge he had accumulated. And indeed, in a series of major books, "Michael Pollan" laid out the base causes of America's disease in popular language, written persuasively to bring the masses of American's slowly to a new way of living.
Admittedly, this method was a long shot, but the even longer shot - revealing his immortality and claiming inhuman knowledge to win people to his cause, seemed even less likely in this age of atheism and internets. Instead, he contented himself to make a rational case, and wait for the day when humanity found him out, and listened of their own accord. Indeed, the pseudonym was a bit of a joke, changing just one letter of his first name, and making the last name just a mis-spelled botanical term (what is a writer but a pollinator of minds?). And the photos of his previous life were still out there, available for all to see. It was just a matter of time until someone put the pieces together.
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posted by philip-random at 9:54 AM on June 6