Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961) Lyrics

Lyric discussion by skunkbythebrook 

Cover art for Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961) lyrics by Weakerthans, The

"Michel Foucault was the father of deconstructionist philsophy."

That's Derrida, not Foucault. Foucault is often labelled structuralist, but isn't, really.

I read an interview with john k. somewhere in which he explained that the song was about his encountering Foucault and "postmodernism" generally. Specifically the difficulty he had with Foucault's work, which he saw as challenging the 'concept of grand narratives'. Shackelton is featured because, it was explained, his Anarctic expedition was the last real modernist frivolity and he was therefore the perfect canditate for a fantasy dinner date with Michel Foucault. One of their best songs.