The Whale Belly

Towards the end of his life, French critical theorist Michel Foucault conducted several studies on the ascetic techniques of ethical self-formation used by Greek and Roman Stoics. In his essay “Self-Writing,” he explored the role of writing in the philosophical cultivation of self. He examined the use of hupomnemata, journals where individuals could record “extracts from books, examples, and actions that one had witnessed or read about, reflections or reasonings that one had heard or that came to mind.” These were used as the material for further reading, writing, and discussion with oneself and others. Over time, the exercises associated with the hupomnemata not only internalized knowledge in memory but also imbued it into the soul. For the Stoics, the ultimate aim of this practice was to bring the hupomnemata’s user into alignment with the rational order of nature.

The hupomnemata were distinct from a personal diary in which a person reveals themselves, a practice more associated with the confessions that became popular under early Christianity. Instead, they were used to “capture the already-said, to collect what one has managed to hear or read, and for a purpose that is nothing less than the shaping of the self.” While confession in Christianity aims to purify the self for divine communion, pagan practices sought to develop the self, building on rules established through traditional authority and affirmed as truth.

Foucault, whose life’s work was dedicated to critiquing how power constructs traditional authority, was more interested in the possibilities inherent in the technique of the hupomnemata rather than in its claim to rational truth. For him, the hupomnemata could be a tool for constructing or forming the self, rather than developing it towards an established end. This was in line with his archaeological and genealogical studies of civilization, power, and ideology.

Towards the end of his essay, Foucault discusses how these notebooks became the raw material for correspondence. While he referred to it in the sense of letters between individuals, I see potential for it extending to the creation of essays, articles, and stories.

Reading Foucault’s study on hupomnemata is reshaping my understanding of reading and writing, influencing my perception of its purpose and possibilities. I’m contemplating seeing my writing as dual-faceted: a learning tool on the one hand (the notebook), and as an epistolary or “soul exchanging” medium on the other through publication.