A "Foucaultian" View of Spiderman

I feel that the pop culture Spiderman character lends itself to a Foucaultian review better than either of the other two choices - - however, I am definitely not an expert. My view of Foucault after Friday's presentation is that he is interested in breaking "codes of culture" down and interpreting their existence and meaning. He does this with normal daily activities and then uses this same technique to critique "Las Meninas", a very famous painting from the 17th century. As Kevin and Erik explained to us, "Foucault is uncovering truths and making interpretations about knowledge; breaking knowledge down into its basic components" with his work.

Spiderman was, at one point, a "normal" boy and went about his life doing daily activities that would be classified by Foucault as empirical orders. They are behaviors that are associated with social norms such as going to school and participating in extracurricular activities, and the "boy" version of the superhero spent the majority of the day in this manner. I believe that he spent little of his time in the third region of knowledge - - the intermediary region - -as he very rarely questioned the way society worked during his time as a "boy." However, I think that as he changes into Spiderman, he changes the way in which he looks at the world as he moves away from what is generally accepted as "normal" in society.

As Spiderman develops into a known figure in society, there seems to be more controversy as to his existence and the reasons behind his existence. He no longer follows Foucault's "fundamental codes of culture [that are] established for every man, from the very first, the empirical orders with which he will be dealing and within which he will be at home." There are no established codes for the actions of a superhero and there are definitely no philosophical interpretations for why superheroes do exist. I feel that the internal struggle that Spiderman feels as he deals with his national hero status stems from his inability to follow the "normal" empirical orders of society. No longer does he have to wait to decide if a building is safe to scale or test the waters before he jumps - - he has no knowledge of these tasks but is able to do them anyway due to his superhuman abilities. This would be a struggle - - to be able to do things without anyone before to tell them if it is the correct or right way to do it. At this point, I feel that Spiderman definitely expands his third region of knowledge that causes him to question the knowledge that is often overlooked. He is able to question the empirical orders of society because he no longer has to follow them in the way that others do. In this process, I believe it can lead the rest of society to discover that Spiderman's superhuman abilities do not mean that he is a harm to society. Instead, they must come to understand that society is simply changing - - new doesn't always mean bad.