Discipline and Punish vs Natural Symbols: Which Should You Read?

Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault · 1975 ★★★★☆ 4.1 333 pages · ≈ 6 h 10 m · Challenging

“On 2 March 1757 Damiens the regicide condemmed 'to make the amende honorable before the main door of the Church of Paris', where he was to be 'taken and conveyed in a cart, wearing nothing but a a shirt, holding a torch of burning wax weighing two pounds'; then, 'in the said cart, to the place de Greve, where, on a scaffold that will be erected there, the flesh will be torn from his breasts, arms,”

English version of "Surveiller et punir: naissance de la prison"

Natural Symbols Profess Douglas · 1970 ★★★★☆ 3.9 224 pages · ≈ 4 h 09 m · Moderate

“One of the gravest problems of our day is the lack of commitment to common symbols.”

There are no such things as natural symbols. Every culture naturalises a certain view of the human body to make it carry social meanings. This work focuses on how the selections from blood, bones, breath or excrement,…