Dr. Seuss and Philosophy - Jacob M. Held [58]
What Do You Think We Should Call This One?
Up to this point we have stuck with Lyotard as our postmodern representative. And Lyotard is really good at pointing out the issue of modernity and the goal of Postmodernity. But there are others who illustrate the value of transgression, of going beyond, quite well. Michel Foucault, taking his lead from Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), does so by placing ideas and narratives within their historical contexts. In so doing he is able to demonstrate that these ideas, taken as eternal truths by their proponents, are just blips on the radar of human culture, contingent aberrations that can and ought to be gone beyond.
A great deal of Nietzsche’s work is about discrediting the arrogant claims of philosophers, claims to absolute knowledge. He does so by laying bear the conditions under which this knowledge was generated, accepted as truth, and maintained supremacy. The gist: most of the time claims to truth are nothing short of cloaked assertions of power and mechanisms of control. He uses this method to proffer accounts of Christianity, morality, political values, and other normative, evaluative schemas that have historically been used to ground and value human existence. Nietzsche referred to his methodology as genealogy. He sought to show the lineage of modern ideas so that we could contextualize them in order, ultimately that we might cast them off as antiquated notions of bygone days. It’s this project that Foucault continues in his postmodern critique of modern narratives on normalcy from sanity and mental health to criminality and sexuality.
The crux of the genealogical method is the idea that by tracing out the historical foundations and roots of certain truths one is able to show their contingent origins. Our systems of knowledge and understanding as well as our systems of evaluations and standards are shown to be accidental, things could’ve been otherwise. If things could’ve been different, then they still can be, and this is important. This is the insight of the narrator in On Beyond Zebra! Although his buddy Conrad is a master of the twenty-six-letter alphabet, there could be more letters, there could be new letters, and these new letters could express new ideas, truths, and perspectives on the world. “You just can’t spell Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer” (Zebra) without HUMPF. And once one realizes this one realizes there is so much they don’t and can’t know when they refuse to go beyond Z. To stay within the given twenty-six-letter alphabet is to stay within somebody else’s view of reality, a limiting and narrow view at that, one without the Wumbus and Umbus, one without Quandary and Thnadners. For Foucault, as for Nietzsche before him, life is about experimentation and ought to be lived dangerously, on the borders. Now we can’t find Wumbuses, but we can go beyond Kant to perceive our world outside of or beyond his system, beyond modernity and its truths and values.
Consider one of Foucault’s favorite topics: the medicalization of our lives. As Foucault points out, all we do and all we are is defined and redefined by various medical professions until we become nothing more than a list of disorders, dysfunctions, and prescriptions. One need only read You’re Only Old Once! to get the gist of the problem. We’re continually poked and prodded and told what is wrong with us; we’re all given our “solvency” tests. Then we’re prescribed a regimen of “pill drills