{"id":1067,"date":"2018-05-24T23:05:48","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T23:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/?p=1067"},"modified":"2023-06-20T19:03:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T19:03:26","slug":"plug-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/2018\/05\/24\/plug-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Plug in"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If my memory serves me, it\u2019s in \u2018Gilles Deleuze from A to Z\u2019, a series of conversations with Claire Parnet, that Deleuze expresses his opposition to <em>schools of thought<\/em> (see \u201c\u2018P\u2019 as in Professor\u201d and \u201c\u2018W\u2019 as in Wittgenstein\u201d). He lists, among others (that we could think of here), Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger and Jacques Lacan as ones that became <em>schools<\/em>. The way I understand this is that it\u2019s not really even about the big names, but what comes of them, <em>schools<\/em>, leading to all these squabbles about who is right and who is wrong, culminating in what\u2019d say is <em>priesthood <\/em>like behavior, if we take some cues from Deleuze and F\u00e9lix Guattari&#8217;s \u2018A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia\u2019, as I\u2019ve explained a number of times already in my essays. How to put it simply? Well, nothing good comes out of that, everything becomes very static, not to mention bureaucratic and it results in admin. If there\u2019s something I cannot stand, it\u2019s admin, so I\u2019m with him on this, just on that notion alone, albeit I agree otherwise as well. If my memory serves me, with Lacan, in the interview he has this moment of amusement that is simultaneously marked by feeling for Lacan, having set himself up to be that leader. The thing with being the leader, the one on top, is that it becomes a chore and you\u2019ll end up being the <em>emperor<\/em>, surrounded by <em>priests<\/em>, albeit in this case they are the loyal or fanatical <em>followers<\/em>, people who strive to be more you than you are. They are not like you, as would be the case when you run into someone who, to your surprise, thinks alike, and, perhaps, has no prior awareness of your existence. Anyway, long story short, the point being that, with Deleuze in particular, the notion of being someone who has <em>disciples <\/em>or loyal <em>followers <\/em>is abhorrent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How is this at all relevant? Where am I going with this? It happens to be that, once again, I was searching for something, only to end up reading something else instead. This time I landed on an article written by Kathryn Strom, a name I had previously never even heard of (or read, it\u2019s not like I hear what I read\u2026). It\u2019s a very recent article, titled \u2018\u201cThat\u2019s Not Very Deleuzian\u201d: Thoughts on interrupting the exclusionary nature of \u201cHigh Theory\u201d\u2019. In the article she (104) notes that it was Michel Foucault who once pointed out in a review of Deleuze works, \u2018Diff\u00e9rence et r\u00e9p\u00e9tition\u2019 and \u2018Logique du sens\u2019 that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[P]erhaps one day, this century will be known as Deleuzian.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This (165) from \u2018Theatrum Philosophicum\u2019, as included in \u2018Language, Counter-memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews\u2019. I think Strom (104) is a bit off with the statement that &#8220;the twenty-first century would be Deleuzian&#8221;, but then again one day could well be in the twenty-first century, not the twentieth century, thus nonetheless being accurate, considering that it is now that we think of it and Deleuze being firmly situated in the twentieth century. One way or another, it makes little difference here really. If one looks at the French original, it actually says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[P]eut-\u00eatre, le si\u00e8cle sera deleuzien.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Assuming that the third party source has it correctly (I couldn\u2019t actually find a copy of \u2018Critique, 282, pages 885-908 to confirm that), it\u2019s actually <em>the<\/em> century, not <em>this<\/em> century, albeit that\u2019s still passable, considering that it would make little sense for Foucault to refer to some other century than the twentieth century. Anyway, so, Strom (104) is well on the point that, if I\u2019m getting it right, Deleuze is a rather recently appreciated figure in philosophy and, perhaps, even more so outside it. Her point of contact is that of education. Mine is, not as you might think of it, geography, not linguistics. Good luck trying to find a linguist who has read anything by Deleuze (and\/or Guattari)! Okay, fair enough, there are some, so let\u2019s not be overly dramatic about it. Then again, the number of people I can think of is \u2026 rather \u2026 Jean-Jacques Lecercle? I can\u2019t think of others really, at least established ones (do let me know of others, I\u2019d certainly appreciate it). I was going to write that he\u2019s not even that Deleuzian, but in a way he is, in the sense that he isn\u2019t a <em>disciple <\/em>or an <em>acolyte<\/em>, someone who\u2019d just go with whatever the \u2018great philosopher\u2019 has once said and then preach it to the world, as if it was the <em>truth <\/em>and nothing but the <em>truth<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right, so, I\u2019ve thought about this, but not really encountered such, perhaps because my background and (supposed) field are different from Strom. I also have some background in education, having teacher qualifications, but, like Strom, opted to do a PhD, which is, currently, work in progress, as I (have to) wait for people to review my manuscripts. Anyway, Strom (104) characterizes her \u201cjourney from the classroom to Deleuze\u201d as uneasy, marked by some \u201cencounters with the surprising orthodoxies of using Deleuzian thought[.]\u201d I\u2019m not going to get stuck with reiterating her experiences pertaining to how she went from the classroom to read Deleuze, as well as Guattari. I assume you can do that yourself. What\u2019s common between me and Strom (106) is that it appears that we both found ourselves \u201cdissatisfied and uninspired by the dominant theoretical bodies\u201d in existing research. It\u2019s worth emphasizing the word \u2018dominant\u2019 here, as otherwise it would be the same as stating that all existing research is unsatisfying and uninspiring. That\u2019d be quite the hubris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This going to be a bit of a detour, but, for example, I found much of <em>linguistic landscape<\/em> research unsatisfying and uninspiring, but not all and the more contemporary it is, the more satisfying and inspiring it tends to be, perhaps because others also find themselves unsatisfied and uninspired by merely doing the same, keeping things as they are, instead of bravely going forward and coming up with all kinds of novelty, even if that entails having to go outside your comfort zone. I found much of <em>geographic landscape <\/em>research particularly inspiring in this regard as I struggled to come to terms with the <em>landscape <\/em>part of my research. The thing was that, as much as I appreciate the work of others in the field, it just didn\u2019t and still doesn\u2019t feel right to just copy them, ignoring their own influences. So instead of taking things as they are, I tried my best to understand <em>how <\/em>they\u2019ve come where they are. This involved reading all kinds of literature, on this and that, for example trying to understand rock climbing as a <em>practice <\/em>in the world, in a <em>phenomenological <\/em>sense. Anyway, long story short, I ended up reading Deleuze and Guattari, \u2018A Thousand Plateaus\u2019 in particular, not because they were the go to guys, I mean hardly, but because I was curious about how they address <em>landscape<\/em>. At first it was quite the \u2026 push \u2026 and it took me a lot of effort to get into it. I think the best advice I got, reading what others had to say about the book, was to just read it, not get stuck on some bit. After a while it turned out to be very, very inspiring. It turned out to be not only relevant to my research but also, and perhaps even more importantly, very inspiring, thought provoking and revolutionary on a personal level. Oh, another good tip was not to read what others have written on their work, unless you\u2019ve read the relevant works first. It\u2019s quite daunting that way, but well worth it. Am I done with it? No and probably never will be. I\u2019m not even that sure my work is Deleuzian or Deleuzo-Guattarian, but I\u2019m, honestly, not too fussy about that. Something tells me they\u2019d rather have me go my own way, do my thing, whatever that is, taking some cues from them and some others from others, perhaps even stumble a bit on my way, wherever that way may take me, or not. That\u2019s actually the topic here, so let\u2019s get back to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Strom (106) points out that reading Deleuze, at first, \u201cwas like a foreign language\u201d and it stretched her \u201cthinking in entirely new and often uncomfortable directions.\u201d Well, I can only agree here. It sure comes across as strange at first and it does cause a deal of discomfort. You might even question your sanity at times. It\u2019s not easy reading and far from holding your hand. She (106) also points out that through a friend she understood that with Deleuze, and I would add Guattari (who often gets ignored and lumped into Deleuze) here, it\u2019s not about understanding it all, knowing what the great philosopher means by it all, the emphasis being on feeling that you have to understand his philosophy in its totality, from the beginning to the end. This is what I meant by not getting stuck with not getting something. It\u2019ll come to you eventually and if it doesn\u2019t, well, then it doesn\u2019t, no biggie. Her (106) point really being, in a nutshell, that, as she puts it, \u201c[w]hat mattered was if I found anything that <em>worked for me<\/em>.\u201d Conversely, as she (106) characterizes a friend of hers worrying about it, it\u2019s not about whether you get it right. The way I understand it is that the point is that you cannot get Deleuze (and Guattari) right. It\u2019s exactly as she puts it, whether it works <em>for you<\/em>, or should I say, <em>on you<\/em>. It makes little sense reading \u2018A Thousand Plateaus\u2019 like a textbook and then be done with it. Done with it? Really? Be careful what you wish for! Okay, at first you may wish to be done with it, after one plateau or so, say just the intro, as it can feel a bit tiresome, but the more you get into it, the beginning and the end just doesn\u2019t compute like it did before and you find yourself going all over the place, reading a bit of this and a bit of that, sometimes in other books, only to read some parts again because as you <em>become <\/em>something else. The text also <em>becomes <\/em>something else, not entirely different but different nonetheless. It just wouldn\u2019t work if it was a textbook, a linear reading experience with a preset ending. At this point Strom (106) cites Deleuze, as having said about reading that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cSomething comes through or it does not. There is nothing to explain, nothing to understand, nothing to interpret. It is like plugging in to an electric circuit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Indeed he did, albeit the reference is off in the article. It\u2019s not on page 8 in \u2018The Logic of Sense\u2019 but in \u2018Letter to a Harsh Critic\u2019, as included in \u2018Negotiations\u2019. Now, I\u2019m not trying to condemn Strom for providing the wrong citation. It\u2019s probably just something that got mixed up, \u2018The Logic of Sense\u2019 being published as an English translation in 1990 (French original in 1969) and the French original of the text collection being published in 1990. It could easily have been included in some draft, only to be incorrectly cut at a later stage. Happens. No biggie. Incidentally, if you let me (not that you have a choice though, I mean, after all, this is my essay), this is a text in which the earlier point about the century being Deleuzian is mentioned. It\u2019s an interesting text alright, addressed to Michel Cressole who wrote a book about Deleuze, as indicated in the translator&#8217;s notes (183). Judging by the content, Deleuze wasn\u2019t too happy about the book, not because one couldn\u2019t or shouldn\u2019t write books about people, but because he wasn\u2019t fond of the idea, really. That would only make sense, considering his views on <em>schools of thought<\/em>, as expressed earlier on. To be honest, it is a bit weird to have someone write a biography of you, you know, when you are alive, and to be expected to go with it, to cooperate with it. It may come across a bit like you are sourcing someone to do it for you, hence it being a bit strange, well, at least if you ask me that is. Deleuze (4) does point out that he was fine with exchanging letters, I assume to give his views on this and that (journalists like quotes, for the added value). I may be getting this wrong (the sentence, or the translation of it, is a bit wonky), but he seems fine with the letters, pending that there\u2019s transparency to it, so that people could actually check on those letters. Anyway, one way or another, regardless of whether I got that right here, I take it that Deleuze finds Cressole\u2019s book project frivolous, having more to do with Cressole than Deleuze, consider that he (4) states that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[T]hat&#8217;s your business, and I told you from the start that your book was nothing to do with me, that I wasn&#8217;t going to read it, or I would read it when it came out, as saying something about you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s also a great bit about him addressing the critic for supposedly trading compliments with Foucault, you know, being buddy buddies for the added value of it (4):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cYour version of this is that we&#8217;re trading compliments. It doesn&#8217;t seem to cross your mind that I might really admire Foucault, or that his little remark&#8217;s a joke meant to make people who like us laugh, and make everyone else livid.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This is, indeed, one of those things that damned if you do, damned if you don\u2019t. How dare you compliment someone! How dare you not compliment someone! It may well be that, as Deleuze (4) points out but won\u2019t say how it is, Foucault was just joking about it. I reckon it was both, actually admiring Deleuze, but also pointing out something which really wasn\u2019t the case back then and wasn\u2019t the case later on after Foucault\u2019s death either. In this sense Strom (104) is only correct to state that it\u2019s the twenty-first century that\u2019s Deleuzian. There\u2019s also another great bit that by Deleuze (4-5) in this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWeird ambition \u2026 to be someone&#8217;s guilty conscience. And you too, it&#8217;s as though you think doing a book about (or against) me gives you some power over me. No way. The idea of feeling guilty is, for me, just as repugnant as being someone else\u2019s guilty conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>What. A. Nugget. Of. Gold. I mean he didn\u2019t even want the book and he should feel sorry or, as he puts it, guilty for something. The what now? That is just priceless, or, as Kelso would say in \u2018That &#8217;70s Show\u2019, &#8220;Burn!&#8221; He (5) continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m not admitting anything. Since what&#8217;s at issue, through no fault of mine, is a book about me[.]\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This is one of those things that I also came across randomly. Turning Paul Grice upside down, as an exploit of the <em>co-operative principle<\/em>, the <em>maxim of relation<\/em> in particular, Lecercle addresses this in \u2018The Misprision of Pragmatics: Conceptions of Language in Contemporary French Philosophy\u2019 when he (28) states that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe victim of an insult, or of an accusation of this sort, even if (s)he denies the charge, always answers, if only for a moment, from the position named by the accuser.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>True <\/em>or <em>false<\/em>, makes no difference at that moment. So when you accuse someone, of something, you force the person to respond from that position. It\u2019s far from a fair trial. It\u2019s not a moment where equals, peers, entertain a moment of wonder in which blame or the lack thereof is established. This is why, in contrast to the judicial system, Lecercle (29) states that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe law of ordinary conversation is a lynching law, where there is no smoke without fire, and where the accused answers from a position of presumed guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>How to put this in other words? Well, in Louis Althusser\u2019s terms, this is about <em>interpellation <\/em>or <em>hailing<\/em>, as presented in \u2018Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses\u2019, as published in his 1971 publication \u2018Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays\u2019. To be more specific, <em>interpellation<\/em>, as exemplified by Althusser (174), has to do with situations where a <em>subject position<\/em> is imposed on someone by someone else. His (174) example is that of a policeman who <em>hails <\/em>at a person:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c\u2019Hey, you there!\u2019 \u2026 [T]he theoretical scene I have imagined takes place in the street, the hailed individual will turn round. By this mere one-hundred-and-eighty-degree physical conversion, he becomes a subject. Why? Because he has recognized that the hail was \u2018really\u2019 addressed to him, and that \u2018it was <em>really him<\/em> who was hailed\u2019 (and not someone else).\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>He (174) characterizes this as \u201ca strange phenomenon[,] \u2026 one which cannot be explained solely by \u2018guilt feelings\u2019, despite the large numbers who \u2018have something on their conscienscies\u2019. In other words, guilty or not, you end up having to recognize the <em>subject position<\/em> imposed upon <em>you<\/em>. The <em>subject <\/em>here is not the <em>subject <\/em>you like to think yourself as, the <em>grammatical subject<\/em>, the \u2018I\u2019, the one who does things, but a <em>subject to<\/em>, as in being the <em>subject to<\/em> a sovereign. You are not <em>objectified<\/em>, but <em>subjectified<\/em>, albeit not on your own terms but on someone else\u2019s terms. In terms used in \u2018A Thousand Plateaus\u2019, this is an <em>incorporeal transformation<\/em>, as explained by Deleuze and Guattari (80):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIn effect, what takes place beforehand (the crime of which someone is accused), and what takes place after (the carrying out of the penalty), are actions-passions affecting bodies (the body of the property, the body of the victim, the body of the convict, the body of the prison)[.]\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s the example they use to explain a juridical <em>assemblage<\/em>. However, that\u2019s only part of the story, so they continue (80-81):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[B]ut the transformation of the accused into a convict is a pure instantaneous act or incorporeal attribute that is the expressed of the judge&#8217;s sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>To make more sense of this, it\u2019s worth first reiterating that this is, indeed, about sentencing done by judges, not about a mere accusation. The point here is that nothing <em>physical <\/em>happens to the person who is sentenced by a judge, unless the sentence involves a punishment upon the <em>body<\/em>. Contemporarily this is not the case. What\u2019s at stake here is that the person undergoes an instantaneous <em>transformation<\/em>, going from being merely accused, innocent until proven guilty, to guilty, which, in turn, results in the person being considered as such. What that then entails depends on what one is found guilty of, ranging from fines to imprisonment, as well as stigma that may or may not come with it, which may then affect how people will treat the person in this and\/or that situation. That said, I\u2019d argue that a mere accusation already <em>transforms <\/em>the person, even if only temporarily, hence the following point made by Lecercle (29):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIt takes a whole system of judicial rights, and a long tradition of fair trial, to convince one that the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, we have the system just so that we push ourselves to think that people are not guilty, to be lynched, before they are proven to guilty and then not be lynched but punished accordingly, as agreed upon beforehand for this and\/or that infraction. Unless I\u2019m mistaken, this is what is known as rule of law. This is why Lecercle (29) calls conversation an unfair trial. Anyway, getting back on track here, this is how I read Deleuze (5) reacting to being portrayed in a negative way, as if he was guilty of something, as presented by Cressole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think that at this point it should be noted that, as explained by Deleuze and Guattari (81), <em>incorporeal transformations<\/em> are not inherently <em>negative<\/em>. So, the emphasis here, the <em>negative <\/em>depiction of someone, based on an accusation, treating them as a suspect, is not all there is to this. Among the <em>positive <\/em>ones, I hope, is love, what they (81) call an <em>intermingling of bodies<\/em> in which it\u2019s not just about the <em>intermingling of bodies<\/em> but the declaration of it, <em>expressing <\/em>it. Okay, fair enough, you can have <em>intermingling of bodies<\/em>, in this case the <em>bodies <\/em>of people, the <em>corpora<\/em>, in whatever configuration, and it can be, I was going to write pleasurable, but to make the point better here, I\u2019ll use the word lovely. It\u2019s not, however, what is love, to cite Haddaway for a moment, as it misses the relevant <em>noncorporeal <\/em>or <em>incorporeal <\/em>aspects of it. At the same time, we can think of this the other way around as well. <em>Expressing <\/em>love without the appropriate <em>intermingling of bodies<\/em> just won\u2019t work, or, as Deleuze and Guattari (82) put it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[It] has neither meaning nor subject nor addressee outside of circumstances that not only give it credibility but make it a veritable assemblage, a power marker, even in the case of an unhappy love[.]\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Obviously this is not as straight forward as I\u2019ve, perhaps, made it seem. This is why Deleuze and Guattari (82) warn not to treat <em>assemblages <\/em>as all the same and always the same but rather \u201cin constant variation \u2026 themselves constantly subject to transformations\u201d pending on the circumstances which are both <em>corporeal <\/em>and <em>incorporeal<\/em>. In simple terms, it depends on the context. For example, getting back on track here, only a judge can sentence someone, not just any<em>body<\/em> will do, assuming that, of course, we are convinced that we should leave the judging of the accused only to them. Conversely, if we are not convinced to leave the judging of the accused to judges, the accused is rendered guilty at that moment, until, not unless, that person can provide proof of innocence against the accusation\/judgement. This is what Lecercle (29) calls an unfair trial, what I&#8217;d call a starting position in which you are framed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right, returning to Strom (106), Deleuze (8) does indeed state that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[S]omething comes through or it doesn&#8217;t. There&#8217;s nothing to explain, nothing to understand, nothing to interpret. It&#8217;s like plugging in to an electric circuit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>To contextualize this, he (8-9) is explaining that there are two ways of reading books and this is the second one, the one he prefers. The first way he (8) characterizes as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cYou \u2026 see it as a box with something inside and start looking for what it signifies, and then if you\u2019re even more perverse or depraved you set off after signifiers. And you treat the next book like a box contained in the first or containing it. And you annotate and interpret and question, and write a book about the book, and so on and on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>To contextualize the second one, the one already defined, he (9) further characterizes it as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[Y]ou see the book as a little non-signifying machine, and the only question is \u2018Does it work, and how does it work?\u2019 How does it work for you? If it doesn&#8217;t work, if nothing comes through, you try another book.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the point made by Strom\u2019s (106) friend, about reading Deleuze in a way that what matters if it <em>works <\/em>for <em>you<\/em>. Deleuze makes the same point via Proust in conversation with Foucault in \u2018Intellectuals and Power\u2019, as included in the aforementioned 1977 publication. During the interview Deleuze (208) states that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[I]t was Proust \u2026 who said it so clearly: treat my book as a pair of glasses directed to the outside; if they don\u2019t suit you, find another pair[.]\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s pretty much the same point made by him in the \u2018Letter to a Harsh Critic\u2019, in which he (8-9) also goes on to characterize it as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThis intensive way of reading, in contact with what&#8217;s outside the book, as a flow meeting other flows, one machine among others, as a series of experiments for each reader in the midst of events that have nothing to do with books, as tearing the book into pieces, getting it to interact with other things, absolutely anything \u2026 is reading with love.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t know about others but this is sort of how I\u2019ve approached his works, \u2018A Thousand Plateaus\u2019 in particular. It connects to all kinds of things through me, in as much it does, or, well, it doesn\u2019t. So, for example, I might be reading about something, which, sort of, leaves me hanging, not knowing what to think of, say, some concept, which then, at some random moment, outside the book, as he puts it, opens up to me. That in turn then will change the reading as I return to the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This also relates to how in that text, in that letter, he (7) elaborates his writing process, treating it as a <em>flow <\/em>instead of a <em>code<\/em>. He (7) notes that he writes in plural, which then, according to him, angered many readers who wanted to know <em>who <\/em>wrote what, <em>whose <\/em>idea is this and the like, when they read the \u2018Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia\u2019, his first collaboration with Guattari. In the intro of \u2018A Thousand Plateaus\u2019, they (3) state that they wrote \u2018Anti-Oedipus\u2019 together, but not in the traditional sense as having, merely, two writers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cSince each of us was several, there was already quite a crowd. \u2026 Why have we kept our own names? Out of habit, purely out of habit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, that\u2019s only a part of the opening paragraph, but it\u2019s already evident from this that it\u2019s irrelevant <em>who <\/em>wrote the book, whether something was written by Deleuze or Guattari. They are keen to point out that they are merely playing along. Typically the name first mentioned is considered the primary author, the one that did most work, followed by the names of people who did less. Here they go on record to point out that they put their names on the book purely out of habit, out of convention. It could well be that Guattari wrote more, came up with more, and should thus should be listed first, but they opted to list Deleuze first, just to mess with you, considering how Deleuze (7) characterizes the hostility toward his collaboration with Guattari:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ve wondered whether one general reason for some of the hostility toward the book is simply the fact that there are two writers, because people want you to disagree about things, and take different positions. So they try to disentangle inseparable elements and identify who did what.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, when people see two names, in this case Deleuze and Guattari, they want to think them as separate <em>individuals <\/em>who have their distinct <em>identities<\/em>. The <em>author <\/em>needs to be <em>identified <\/em>and the author&#8217;s works need to be organized into a canon. I reckon this is the point Deleuze (7-8) makes on the first way of reading. Foucault addresses this in \u2018What Is an Author\u2019, as included in \u2018Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology\u2019. In summary, he (207) states that the <em>individual<\/em>, the <em>writer<\/em>, is not of importance, but the <em>author <\/em>and the <em>body of work<\/em> by the <em>author<\/em>, which, for some reason, needs to be organized:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cEven when an individual has been accepted as an author, we must still ask whether everything that he wrote, said, or left behind is part of his work. The problem is both theoretical and technical. When undertaking the publication of Nietzsche\u2019s works, for example, where should one stop? Surely everything must be published, but what is \u2018everything\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Foucault (207) goes on to qualify all works published by the person, in this case Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as draft works, plans and notes, only to state that this becomes an endless list, an obsession that goes on forever. Deleuze and Guattari are messing with this, not making it evident <em>who <\/em>wrote what. Anyway, getting back to the first paragraph in \u2018A Thousand Plateaus\u2019, they (3) specify that the purpose is to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cTo reach, not the point where one no longer says I, but the point where it is no longer of any importance whether one says I. We are no longer ourselves. Each will know his own. We have been aided, inspired, multiplied.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The thing with \u2018I\u2019 is that it\u2019s always \u2018I\u2019 who is saying or writing \u2018I\u2019 when it is invoked, as it is explained in the book. It\u2019s inherently circular, <em>hailing<\/em> yourself, really. However, it\u2019s not even really about invoking \u2018I\u2019. Getting rid of it is not really a solution. It\u2019s still there, even in the absence of it, so not writing it, being super careful about it, is not a solution. As you can see, they are certainly not bothered about it. They are fine with attributing the book as written by Deleuze and Guattari because that\u2019s beside the point. It is of little value to me to characterize myself, as this and\/or that, as I\u2019m always myself. That\u2019s all there\u2019s to it. So, when I say or write \u2018I\u2019, I\u2019m doing it purely out of habit. Not long ago, at a conference, where I was able to explain this to a fellow scholar (who happened to think alike and who shall remain nameless) that to be yourself is not to be yourself, as the fellow scholar expressed it back to me in reference to S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard. I\u2019d say that was among those rare moments that, to put it in Deleuze\u2019s (7) words in the letter, \u201cwe understood and complemented, depersonalized and singularized\u201d or, as expressed by Deleuze and Guattari (3) in the intro of &#8216;A Thousand Plateaus&#8217;, \u201c[w]e have been aided, inspired, multiplied.\u201d Okay, I can\u2019t speak for others, so I can\u2019t be sure if that\u2019s how it worked for the other person. It did for me though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some paragraphs back I pointed out how I read \u2018A Thousand Plateaus\u2019. I read it here and there, when I have the time for it, only for it to end up mixing with outside the book. Now that I think of it, an hour later or so (when that was that is, as I&#8217;m editing this a day or two later), it came to me that this actually applies to writing as well. For example, I\u2019ve been writing this in bits and pieces, when I find the time for it. This results in parts being written at different times, spanning over a number of days, even if the actual time that goes into writing isn\u2019t that many hours. This may result in the text appearing as if a number of people wrote it, likely because I don\u2019t edit these texts almost at all afterwards (unless I feel like it), except for typos (which I&#8217;m not doing), which I may or may not notice. However, this is sort of beside the point. While writing this, or, to be specific, in between writing this, I went cycling for a couple of hours. During that time it occurred to me that it would be sort of impossible to write anything without being several, as Deleuze and Guattari (3) put it, even by myself. I can never write all the words at the same time, now can I? Even if I didn\u2019t take any breaks, as I sometimes do if I don\u2019t have other commitments to attend to, I\u2019d still end up not being what I was at any given point in time writing the text. But that\u2019s hardly an issue. Why would it be? So, as Deleuze (9) puts it in the letter, \u201c[s]o we\u2019ll change, we already have, it\u2019s all going wonderfully.\u201d Okay, if this seems a bit tough to grasp, think of what Foucault points out about the <em>author<\/em>. Is the <em>author <\/em>the <em>writer <\/em>or a figment of our imagination, who we (like to) think the <em>writer <\/em>is, as patched together from what we read? I don\u2019t know about others, nor can I speak on their behalf, but something tells me that, to me, Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Lecercle, Strom, me, the here unnamed scholar I was referring to and anyone I forgot to include here, despite referring to them, are who I think they are, not who they are or were (as some of them are dead). It\u2019d be quite disappointing and disheartening if people just stayed the same and all they had to say was, as if, precoded for them to say, existing in full in the code, only to be expressed during the person\u2019s lifetime. As Deleuze (9) points out, it\u2019d be quite horrible if all we did was to write sequels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back to Strom, skipping quite a bit, she (109-110), after explaining her current situation, having the opportunity to put her reading to work, argues that, despite what one might expect, \u201cthere is a particular kind of orthodoxy that emerges around Deleuzian philosophy.\u201d Here we return to the earlier points made by her (104) regarding <em>orthodoxy<\/em>, before I ended up on a tangent, followed by another tangent, followed by yet another tangent. Anyway, she (110) provides an example of this, having participated in \u201ca month-long rhizomatic reading group for interested education faculty and doctoral students.\u201d I take this to be some sort of a learning retreat. I might be wrong about that, but that\u2019s because I\u2019ve never had the opportunity to attend such. I wouldn\u2019t know. She (110) elaborates her experience, how she reading\/reviewing the intro part of \u2018A Thousand Plateaus\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-default is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cA graduate student whom I had met passed by and stopped, peering over my shoulder at the title of what I was reading: \u2018Introduction: Rhizome.\u2019 He gave me a smirt and said, \u2018An Introduction. That\u2019s not very Deleuzian, is it?\u2019 <em>Right<\/em>, I thought, <em>because Deleuze says we are in a perpetual middle, and that things do not progress in a linear way. Aren\u2019t you clever?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>She (110) then goes on to explain how the day progressed, how she made a poster pertaining to the principles of <em>rhizome<\/em>, as contained in the intro, as included by Deleuze and Guattari, in that shape and form, only to encounter something similar as she did earlier on during the day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cAs I wrote, a faculty member walked by the table where I was working and stopped to read my efforts. He said with a grin, \u2018Principles. Not too Deleuzian, is it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay, two encounters hardly mark a pattern, as she seems to suggest, so she (110) provides another example, unrelated to the reading group. She (110) states that she suggested to a peer that it would be interesting to write a literature review, an overview of how Deleuzian concepts are used in educational research, which resulted in a reply:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c\u2018But a literature review? That wouldn\u2019t be very Deleuzian, would it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay, okay, three cases are still hardly a pattern. I\u2019ll grant that to the reader. Then again, it\u2019s not like Strom could go on and on, on and on, explaining all the encounters where people argue that her line of thought is not very Deleuzian. Articles tend to have hilarious limitations when it comes to how many words can included (as if there was a quota on language?), often including the list of references, so, to be honest, it\u2019s hard to blame her for offering only three examples. Anyway, what I found particularly interesting, and somewhat surprising, as well as unsurprising, is what she has to say on these examples. Firstly, she (110) notes that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[B]eing told that ideas are not \u2018Deleuzian\u2019 enough is an exclusionary mechanism \u2013 it actually does what is at the heart of Deleuze and Guattari\u2019s critique of positivistic thinking or arborescent thought.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>If you ask me, this, stating something is not Deleuzian enough, is just hilarious. As she points out, it\u2019s just simply contradictory. This is why I opted to elaborate Deleuze\u2019s own views on this in the opening paragraph. If what\u2019s elaborated in \u2018Gilles Deleuze from A to Z\u2019 won\u2019t convince you, perhaps going further back in time will convince you. Deleuze (9) addresses this explicitly in the letter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[N]either F\u00e9lix nor I have turned into little leaders of a little school. And we couldn\u2019t care less what people do with <em>Anti-Oedipus<\/em>, because we\u2019ve already moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, in the previous paragraph he (9) expresses his disgust to <em>schools of thought:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cSome people think we\u2019re going to continue along the same lines, some even thought we were going to set up a fifth psychoanalytic group. Yuck.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, secondly Strom (110) notes that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe examples above also show that those who judge others\u2019 ideas for \u2018not being Deleuzian enough\u2019 are misunderstanding, or perhaps missing entirely, a key part of Deleuze\u2019s ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>She (110) goes on to wonder \u201cwhat does it mean to \u2018be Deleuzian\u2019 anyway?\u201d That is a very good question and, judging by what Deleuze expressed, as included in this essay, <em>being<\/em> Deleuzian is, in itself, contradictory, as she (110) goes on to point out. I would use, and I believe I have used, \u2018Deleuzian\u2019 or \u2018Deleuzo-Guattarian\u2019 to mean how they <em>might <\/em>put it, or something would be explained in <em>their <\/em>terms, mainly because I\u2019m too lazy to look up where something gets discussed by them and then explaining how they put it in this and\/or that book. This is the sense that Strom (104) mentions at times using the descriptor. This is, for me, sort of the same as saying how they <em>might <\/em>put it this way, a less academic way of saying <em>pace<\/em>, as I cannot speak <em>for <\/em>them. Anyway, I think she (110) puts this quite eloquently, yet without any pomp, nor throwing anyone under a bus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIf we are zeroing in on what something means, exactly, and evaluating whether or not someone is applying it <em>properly<\/em>, then we are stuck in the realm of meaning and <em>what is<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>How to put this in other words? Well, I\u2019d say that Deleuze, as well as Guattari (who, in general, tends get forgotten all the time), aren\u2019t interested in <em>you <\/em>trying to be <em>them<\/em>. Now, this may seem confusing, so I\u2019ll let Strom (110) finish her line of thought:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe verb \u2018to be\u2019 has been imposed \u2013 <em>to be<\/em> Deleuzian \u2013 and we are once again back reproducing dichotomous thinking: you are, or you <em>are not<\/em>, Deleuzian.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Right, so, as she points out, the whole thing with <em>being<\/em> is, itself, the issue here. Not that I know if they get me, but as I keep telling people, the question isn\u2019t <em>to be or not to be<\/em>, as you always <em>are<\/em>, like it or not, regardless of <em>how <\/em>you are, unless you die, that is of course. You <em>are <\/em>always what you\u2019ve <em>become<\/em>. Aha, so, I <em>am <\/em>what I\u2019ve <em>become<\/em>, therefore I am \u2026 this and\/or that! No. No. No. That\u2019s who you <em>were<\/em> and that\u2019s assuming you can tell who you <em>were<\/em>, which, I\u2019d be highly doubtful of. Deleuze (11) is super clear on this in the letter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWe have to counter people who think \u2018I&#8217;m this, I&#8217;m that,\u2019 and who do so, moreover, in <em>psychoanalytic<\/em> terms (relating everything to their childhood or fate)[.]\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, he (11) recommends that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[We have to counter this] by thinking in strange, fluid, unusual terms: I don\u2019t know what I am \u2013 I\u2019d have to investigate and experiment with so many things in a non-narcissistic, non-oedipal way \u2013 no gay can ever definitively say \u2018I\u2019m gay.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Just as a note here, I\u2019m skipping the gay bit here. I\u2019ll return it to shortly. This just so that you don\u2019t think he is gay bashing here and that I\u2019m cool with it. Argument wise it\u2019s not really even about that. We could simply replace it with just about anything as the question really is, or should be anyway, whether <em>to become or not to become<\/em>. There\u2019s actually no avoiding it, you always <em>become<\/em>, whatever it <em>is <\/em>that you <em>become<\/em>, even if you think otherwise. I may or may not have used this in a previous essay, but, for example, I didn\u2019t go running today (yesterday from now, actually), so it may well be that I didn\u2019t do any favors to my physical fitness. In other words, just by doing nothing, or so to speak, you are <em>becoming <\/em>something. You may not like that, but you are <em>becoming <\/em>something. Now, that\u2019s an unnecessarily simplistic example and, to be honest, it ignores, as I mentioned, that I went cycling instead. I did it for the variety of it and in hopes of avoiding overworking certain parts of my body, which, in turn, facilitate me <em>becoming <\/em>more fit in the sense that I\u2019m also trying not to get injured. Summarizing these two, <em>being <\/em>and <em>becoming<\/em>, in Deleuze\u2019s (11) words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not a question of being this or that sort of human, but of becoming inhuman, of a universal animal becoming \u2013 not seeing yourself as some dumb animal, but unraveling your body\u2019s human organization, exploring this or that zone of bodily intensity[.]\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I can\u2019t remember if I\u2019ve addressed the <em>becoming <\/em>plateau in \u2018A Thousand Plateaus\u2019. I don\u2019t think I have, but I\u2019ll leave that to an another time. That\u2019d be quite the wild tangent here. So, skipping bits here, again, Strom (111) goes on to express her discomfort of completing her dissertation, fearing that, as you might guess already, it\u2019s not Deleuzian enough, whatever that means. Now, just to add something here, as, I guess, I sort of did already, but only in passing, how is it that people keep telling her that something isn\u2019t Deleuzian enough when \u2026 geez \u2026 it should, if we want to go that route, be Deleuzo-Guattarian enough. It should also be mentioned that, as Deleuze and Guattari (3) themselves point out in \u2018A Thousand Plateaus\u2019, they couldn\u2019t care less about the labels, <em>who <\/em>wrote what, <em>who\u2019s<\/em> <em>who<\/em>, <em>who <\/em>gets the attribution and the usual jazz that pervade academia. This is also something that Deleuze (9) brings up in the letter, noting that what they are working on, at the time, that would be, is going to something very different indeed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re well aware that the first volume of <em>Anti-Oedipus<\/em> is still full of compromises, too full of things that are still scholarly and rather like concepts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And (9):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re going to stop compromising, because we don&#8217;t need to any more.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>If we ignore what was published in between, namely the book on Kafka, what they are on about is the book known as \u2018A Thousand Plateaus\u2019, a book that is, itself, something that forms a <em>rhizome<\/em>. As Deleuze (8) characterizes it in the letter, \u201c[a] book is a little cog in much more complicated external machinery.\u201d It\u2019s a book that could just be referred to by its <em>name<\/em>, rather than by its <em>authors<\/em>, but of course, you can\u2019t, at least not in the academia, because, you know, we can\u2019t have things like books without <em>authors <\/em>(in the sense that Foucault discusses the issue) as that\u2019d be mad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I just couldn\u2019t help myself, I had just had to rant for a moment, but back to Strom (111) who was told before her dissertation defense that her work wasn\u2019t Deleuzian enough, not proper <em>rhizoanalysis<\/em>. The issue was, apparently, that she wasn\u2019t unconventional enough. Oh my, my oh my, it\u2019s not about being conventional or unconventional. I\u2019ve brought this up before, so, to rehash myself, for example, a <em>formal style <\/em>is expected of me when I submit an academic article for peer review. I\u2019m far from an advocate of such, because I think it\u2019s an <em>exclusionary practice <\/em>to do so. It\u2019s there to keep out the riffraff, a handy excuse. Anyway, going against it, advocating for <em>informality <\/em>won\u2019t really solve anything. Going all out on <em>informality <\/em>only results in making it the new preferred category, the <em>formal<\/em>, the new <em>orthodoxy<\/em>. It\u2019s not about for or against, but something altogether different. You don\u2019t have to write \u2018do not\u2019, but just because you don\u2019t have to, doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t. Indeed <em>you <\/em>can and it\u2019s up to <em>you <\/em>if you do or <em>you <\/em>do not. Whatever works for <em>you<\/em>. In the letter, addressing Cressole, Deleuze (10) goes on to explain it in terms of everyday life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ve got a wife, and a daughter who plays with dolls and potters around the house.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Then adding (10) that it may seem contradictory, but isn\u2019t:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cAnd you think that in the light of <em>Anti-Oedipus<\/em> this is a huge joke. \u2026 If you think it&#8217;s dolls that produce the Oedipus complex, or the mere fact of being married, that&#8217;s pretty weird. The Oedipus complex is nothing to do with dolls[.]\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s not this or that, something <em>external<\/em>, as he (10) goes on to explain:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[I]t&#8217;s an internal secretion, a gland, and you can&#8217;t fight oedipal secretions except by fighting yourself, by experimenting on yourself, by opening yourself up to love and desire (rather than the whining need to be loved that leads everyone to the psychoanalyst).\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Then going on the offensive, pointing out that Cressole is actually the one being <em>Oedipal<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c[Y]ou should know that it&#8217;s not enough just to be unmarried, not to have kids, to be gay, or belong to this or that group, in order to get round the Oedipus complex-given all the group complexes, oedipal gays, oedipized women&#8217;s libbers, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are unaware, which you may well be, just as I was, that Cressole was Gay Lib, if I understood correctly, short for Gay Liberation (?), and part of the FHAR (Front homosexual d\u2019action revolutionnaire). So, simply put Deleuze reprimands Cressole for assuming that <em>being gay<\/em>, that is to say not <em>heterosexual<\/em>, equates to escaping the <em>Oedipus complex<\/em>. He is very clear on that, as he (10) finishes the paragraph:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cJust look at the piece called \u2018Us and the Arabs,\u2019 which is even more oedipal than my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Here, to contextualize this, Deleuze is referring to a piece, \u2018Les Arabes et Nous\u2019, that Cressole wrote for a notorious journal number that got censored out of existence in 1973 (for being \u2026 erm \u2026 sexually deviant, only to be republished as late as 2002 and 2015). Now, I\u2019m not exactly an expert on <em>homosexuality <\/em>in France in the early 1970s as the only thing I\u2019ve read where this gets covered is Laurent Binet\u2019s romp, in which young \u2018Arab\u2019 men make ends meet by \u2026 inspiring &#8230; French intellectuals. As my knowledge of this is clearly limited, if not fictional, Todd Shepard (94-95) addresses this&nbsp;in his book \u2018Sex, France, and Arab Men, 1962-1979\u2019, stating that the problem was that the texts on \u2018Arab\u2019 men were all about Arabs, in the absence of Arabs. He summarizes (221), that, for Deleuze, in \u2018Les Arabes et Nous\u2019 <em>desire <\/em>(think of <em>desiring machines<\/em>, to use the term from \u2018Anti-Oedipus\u2019) was reduced to mere (b)anal sex, having to do with (im)pertinent questions, such as vaseline or no vaseline (a point that is drawn from a commentary that follows Cressole&#8217;s contribution, &#8216;Sex-pol en acte&#8217; that is considered attributable to Deleuze). In this sense I\u2019m not that surprised that Deleuze and Guattari opted to drop using <em>desiring machines<\/em> and went for <em>assemblages <\/em>instead, even if that probably wasn&#8217;t the one and only reason for the change between the two books. I think it\u2019s worth emphasizing that this is not even about <em>homosexuality <\/em>or <em>heterosexuality<\/em>, but rather about reducing <em>desire <\/em>into <em>sexuality<\/em>, or that\u2019s how I read it anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, getting back on track here, to Strom (111), who states that she was told that she isn\u2019t<em> (un)orthodox <\/em>enough, not properly Deleuzian which is, if you ask me, not what Deleuze and Guattari advocated for. As indicated already, Deleuze went on record to point out that his earlier work was playing it safe, making compromises, even in \u2018Anti-Oedipus\u2019, which is a rather <em>unorthodox <\/em>book, if you ask me. I read Strom (111) as struggling with having to be conventional because that\u2019s expected of her in a dissertation, only to be then judged for being conventional. Oh the irony. It\u2019s not like she has much of a choice. It\u2019s not like she is at an equal footing. I\u2019m actually quite amazed by this, probably because I haven\u2019t encountered this, in the absence of knowing anyone who reads Deleuze and\/or Guattari. Then again, I\u2019m not exactly surprised that people turn them into <em>orthodoxy<\/em>, a <em>school of thought<\/em>. That\u2019s only bound to happen, as contradictory as that may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How to end this? I think Strom (112) ends her article well, so it\u2019s only fair to have her express it, with a minor addition from yours truly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIn resisting orthodoxy, we must also push back against the urge to be the expert or authority on Deleuze [and Guattari]. If every time we plug into a Deleuzian or Deleuzoguattarian text, we are different (being part of different assemblages at each time producing different things), then it stands to reason that each time we read these texts we may come away with ideas and lives changed \u2013 once again a student and novice, never an expert.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019d add here that this applies also to writing, each time we write, we come out of it different, lives changed, albeit never really getting anywhere, in the sense that it\u2019s not like we level up until we hit a level cap. This is part of the reason, at least it is now, why I write on this and\/or that, after reading some interesting text. Reading the article written by Strom (or should I Stroms?) certainly wasn\u2019t just a mere task, going from the first page to the last page, and then be done with it. I went all over the place with this one, as I tend to do in my essays, <em>plugging into <\/em>all kinds of <em>machines<\/em>. Actually, now that I think of it, I ended up on all kinds of tangents just because one citation was off in the text! Wooah!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">References<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Althusser, L. (1971). <em>Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays<\/em> (B. Brewster, Trans.). New York, NY: Monthtly Review Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Binet, L. ([2015] 2017). <em>The Seventh Function of Language<\/em> (S. Taylor, Trans.). New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Boulbina, S. L. ([2008\/2015] 2019). <em>Kafka&#8217;s Monkey and Other Phantoms of Africa<\/em> (L. E. Hengehold, Trans.). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deleuze, G. (1968). <em>Diff\u00e9rence et r\u00e9p\u00e9tition<\/em>. Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deleuze, G. (1969). <em>Logique du sens<\/em>. Paris, France: Les \u00c9ditions de Minuit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deleuze, G. (1973). Sex-pol en acte. <em>Recherches<\/em>, 12, 28\u201331. [NOTE: the text is anonymous, but it has subsequently come to my attention that it is at least partially attributable to Deleuze, as noted by Joughin]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deleuze, G. ([1969] 1990). <em>The Logic of Sense<\/em> (C. V. Boundas, Ed., M. Lester and C. J. Stivale, Trans.). London, United Kingdom: Athlone Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deleuze, G. ([1968] 1994). <em>Difference and Repetition<\/em> (P. Patton, Trans.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deleuze, G. ([1990] 1995). <em>Negotiations, 1992\u20131990<\/em> (M. Joughin, Trans.). New York, NY: Clumbia University Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deleuze, G., and F. Guattari ([1972] 1977). <em>Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia<\/em> (R. Hurley, M. Seem and H. R. Lane, Trans.). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deleuze, G., and F. Guattari ([1980] 1987). <em>A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia<\/em> (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deleuze, G. ([1994\u20131995] 2011). <em>Gilles Deleuze from A to Z<\/em> (P-A. Boutang, Dir., C. J. Stivale, Trans.). Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Finet, P., G. Chevallier, and M., Cressole (1973). Les Arabes et Nous. <em>Recherches<\/em>, 12, 12\u201327. [NOTE: the text is anonymous, but it has subsequently come to my attention that it is not only attributable to Cressole, as noted by Deleuze, but also to Finet and Chavallier, as indicated by Boulbina]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Foucault, M., and G. Deleuze ([1972] 1977). Intellectuals and Power. In M. Foucault, <em>Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews<\/em> (D. Bouchard, Ed., D. Bouchard and S. Simon, Trans.) (pp. 205\u2013217). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Foucault, M. ([1970] 1977). Theatrum Philosophicum. In M. Foucault, <em>Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews<\/em> (D. F. Bouchard, Ed., D. F. Bouchard and S. Simon, Trans.) (pp. 165\u2013196). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Foucault, M. ([1969\/1970\/1994] 1998). What Is an Author? (J. Harari, Trans.). In M. Foucault, <em>Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology<\/em> (J. D. Faubion, R. Hurley, Trans.) (pp. 205\u2013222). New York, NY: The New Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and Conversation. In P. Cole and J. L. Morgan (Eds.), <em>Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 3: Speech Acts<\/em> (pp. 41\u201358). New York, NY: Academic Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Haddaway (1993). <em>What Is Love<\/em> (T. Hendrik and K. van Haaren, Wr., Pr.). Hennef (Sieg), Germany: Coconut Music.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lecercle, J-J. (1987). The Misprision of Pragmatics: Conceptions of Language in Contemporary French Philosophy. <em>Royal Institute of Philosophy Lectures<\/em>, 21, 21\u201340.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Shepard, T. (2017). <em>Sex, France, and Arab Men, 1962\u20131979<\/em>. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Strom, K. J. (2018). \u201cThat\u2019s Not Very Deleuzian\u201d: Thoughts on interrupting the exclusionary nature of \u201cHigh Theory\u201d. <em>Educational Philosophy and Theory<\/em>, 50 (1), 104\u2013113.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Turner, B., T. Turner, M. Brazill, C. Mandabach, M. Carsey, and T. Werner (Ex. Pr.) (1998\u20132006). <em>That &#8217;70s Show<\/em> (D. Trainer, Dir.)<em>.<\/em> Encino, CA: The Carsey-Werner Company.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If my memory serves me, it\u2019s in \u2018Gilles Deleuze from A to Z\u2019, a series of conversations with Claire Parnet, that Deleuze expresses his opposition to schools of thought (see \u201c\u2018P\u2019 as in Professor\u201d and \u201c\u2018W\u2019 as in Wittgenstein\u201d). He lists, among others (that we could think of here), Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger and Jacques [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3554,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[119,425,1616,888,71,48,897,123,891,129,885,335,894,882,1617],"class_list":["post-1067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","tag-althusser","tag-binet","tag-brazill","tag-cressole","tag-deleuze","tag-foucault","tag-grice","tag-guattari","tag-kierkegaard","tag-lacan","tag-lecercle","tag-parnet","tag-shepard","tag-strom","tag-turner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3554"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1067"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5123,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067\/revisions\/5123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/landd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}