i think most of you are awre of my propensity towards percieving a certian (real or imagined)...synchronicity of literarture. (im trying to find an intellectual-sounding way of saying, i like to find coincidences, espescially in books.) so anyway, in the interest of boring everyone, i offer this relatively brief treatsie. i dont know why, i just wanted to tell this irrelevent story.
months ago a fiend itroduced me to the works of michel foucault. a french philosopher and historical analyst. i proceeded on my own to read his history of sexuality, volumes 1-2 of 3. shortly after reading vol. 1, another friend presented me with foucault's pendulum. a book about conspiracies (real or imagined) within secret societes; the rosecrucians, templars, masons, etc.
me, being a typical american, intriniscally assumed there was only one foucault. i thought foucault's pendulum was about michel foucualt. turns out, it refers to the work of leon foucault, a 19th century...er, engineer, i guess is the word. btw, this is on topic since i am currently reading a book about leon, entilteld pendulum: leon foucault and the triumph of science, which i accidentally came across. the book is fascinating as it traces the attempts of earlier scholars to prove the rotation of the earth. which is what foucault's pendulum does.
anyway, there are tons of parallels one could draw between the brilliant minds of ages past, but the funny thing is that last monday i went to the history museum in indianapolis IN, and was pleased to discover they had on display a working replikca of foucault's pendulum!
long story short; these two foucaults, having so recently been completely unknown or obscure to me, have utterly dominated the dorky side of my life.
and oh ya, did you know machiavelli knew da vinci?