Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 13:05:32 -0500
Subject: RE: Foucauldians


>Waht about 12 Monkeys for "Madness and Civilization"?

I did think about that, but the scene in _King George_ where having being
subject to all sorts of coercions George strikes out with "but I am the
King of England", to which his assigned physician replies, "No Sir, you are
the patient" swung it for me.  This is a stunning scene; one that perfectly
reflects the deeper and broader shift of the 18thC from sovereign to
biopower.  Also in _King George_ madness is made to 'confess'; the King
being made, upon the threat of once more being gagged and strapped to his
chair (the denial of the manic mobility of madness itself), to declare
outloud and intelligibly the truth about his own madness.  Then, perhaps
the best scene.  Have people checked this out?  Where King George upon
recognising his own bad behaviour, walks calmly to his chair and *straps
himself in!*  Just amazing.  This perfectly prepares the ground for our
later sessions on the government of souls; panopticism, the automatic
functioning of power, where "inmates" are caught up in a system of which
"they are themselves the bearers".


take care,

_______________________________________________________
Ian Robert Douglas,
Visiting Lecturer & Fulbright Scholar,
Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute of International Studies,
Brown University, Box 1831,
World Hunger Program,
130 Hope Street,
Providence, RI  02912

tel: 401 863-2420 (direct line)
fax: 401 863-1270

"Great is Justice;
Justice is not settled by legislation and laws
     it is in the soul .. " - Walt Whitman