Comments on Struggles With Philosophy: Political Ontology - living in the web

hi Levi,thanks for the response,I unfortunately co...

2007-12-21T15:59:00.000Z

hi Levi,
thanks for the response,
I unfortunately cound not make it to the symposium do to teaching commitments and seems like I missed an interesting event.

I am in agreement with your view about Deleuze's central axiom. There are also plently of warnings about (absolute) deterritorialization throughout Deleuze and Guattari's joint work.

I tend to think the 'ability' to deterritorialise (and reterritorialise) is what Deleuze and Guattari aim to emphasise, which helps to move thought away from essences to an understanding of processes of individuation. Deterritorialisation cannot therefore departure, or transcend, from material conditions, but it can transform them through individuation

Once the holiday period is over I will post my thoughts, in a more detailed manner, about absolute deterritorialisation. I’ll try to include some of Hallward’s critique, which strongly argues against Deleuze being thought of as a materialist philosopher.

Hi Mark,Thanks for the kind reference. Did we tal...

2007-12-20T01:14:00.000Z

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the kind reference. Did we talk at the symposium? Everything is a bit of a blur.

I'm perplexed by where this talk of absolute deterritorialization is coming from within Deleuze's texts. Admittedly my focus over the years has been his earlier, independent work. I had read the works with Guattari, but it is only within the last couple of years that I've begun devoting sustained attention to them. It seems to me that if there is one central Deleuzian axiom, it is that beings only are in relation. An absolute deterritorialization would be a direct violation of this axiom. Moreover, in all the cases where I read Deleuze and Guattari speaking of absolute deterritorialization they seem to refer to it as a catastrophe or disaster to be avoided, not something to be pursued or an ideal. Here I think your remarks about materiality are right on the mark (pardon the pun). The idea is to create and invent, not depart from the world. Perhaps absolute deterritorialization is being latched on as a sort of romantic idea of escape from all constraint, where reterritorialization has been coded as "negative" or as failed becomings. Yet reterritorialization functions as a creative moment in Deleuze and Guattari as well.

thanks for this post.From my delanda/deleuze readi...

2007-12-19T00:11:00.000Z

thanks for this post.
From my delanda/deleuze reading I am curious about the idea of 'about deterritorialisation' in the sense of why it is desired. Instead I would like to focus on the (material) idea of actualisation of the virtual, which argues Deleuze can be read as a philosopher of materialism. This is in contrast to Hallward's reading of Deleuze, who regards Deleuze as a de-materialist/spiritualist. This sort of reading disregards how deleuze views the creation of assemblages as important.

Hi Mark,This is an interesting point, I'll have to...

2007-12-16T00:55:00.000Z

Hi Mark,
This is an interesting point, I'll have to look it up in DeLanda. I mention this as there was some discussion of this idea of absolute deterritorialization, the 'swinging' of the body without organs and so on at the both the music and philosophy symposium and the improvisation symposium at ncl uni this week. This is a recurring theme in arts writing that sees absolute deterritorialization or the body without organs as a site of purity to be obtained through performance, ritual, intensity in expression and so on. It's a shame there wasn't more cross over at these events. I have posted a bit of a ramble on this here: http://willschrimshaw.net/log/2007/12/territories_of_improvisation_1.html
...just in case you;re interested.