What the Foucault Happened this Spring Break?

So I am spring breaking in California right now (my flight got canceled, so I have to fly home Sunday), visiting my brother who goes to school here. He is in grad school right now to become a clinical psychologist. Anyway, so my brother had this paper to write for a class the other day, and he hadn't done much of his reading- so we divided and conquered.

So the short book I skimmed for my brother was about speech (I don't remember the author or title...oops). I couldn't help but notice that the teachings of Michel Foucault were referenced several times- and pretty much all of his ideas about speech that we read and discussed for class were included. But the author of this speech book sort of challenged the merit in Foucault's idea that the author can be an "alter ego" for the actual writer. The author of the speech book pretty much said that rather than present an alter ego, an author should instead attempt to open up and bear his/her heart to his/her readers. Interesting. It might be helpful to mention that this speech book was written by a Christian author and was intended to be read by Christians who want to learn to better themselves as speakers/communicators. (My brother goes to Fuller Theological Seminary)

I think of my brother as a very intellectual person, so a chance to connect with him in a discussion about speech was very cool for me. After a talk about the two sparring opinions, we found some common ground. So Foucault seemed to feel that the author finds effectiveness through a persona. In contrast, this other author finds the persona useless when presenting a speech- she says that the audience will see through it and feel deceived, so the heart must be displayed rather than a false creation. I can roll with that.

A weird note: After reading the speech book that talked about Foucault, my brother and I went to the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. While we were there, we noticed that there was a large crowd huddled around a giant pendulum. The significance? This pendulum (along with a little plaque and engraved thingy) were dedicated to a Foucault for his discoveries (the pendulum being one of them). So there I was kind of feeling a little haunted by Foucault, and I was like, "Whoah, no way! Weird! I am soooo blogging about this for 371." When we got home from the observatory, I began my vicious Wikipedia hunt. After googling Foucault's pendulum, I had a realization. The Foucault that created the pendulum is not the same Foucault that we read about. Sad day.

In summary, I had a brush with Foucault this spring break...and Leon Foucault. Kind of cool. Maybe?