Deleuze and Guattari, from A Thousand Plateaus (Norton 1454-62)
- The first sentence is memorable—“The two of us wrote ANTI-OEDIPUS together. Since each of us is several, there was already quite a crowd” (1601). What’s the joke? What does this opening tell us about the “voice” of this essay? What clues does it give us regarding how we should read it?
- The authors’ series of metaphors of the body (and the book) as an “a body without organs,” an “assemblage,” a “desiring machine,” etc. are quite various and confusing. What do you think they’re getting at? What are they arguing against here and what do they advocate instead?
- Explain the differences between the three types of books the authors describe—the “root-book,” the “fascicular root,” and the “rhizome” (1603-5). What is distinctive about the “rhizome” as a structure? Why do the authors uphold this as a model for a new and better way of writing/thinking/acting?
- What do the authors say about the process of writing their book and their organizational schema? Why write this way? Why not write a “normal” book in a “normal” manner (1606)?
- What is the difference between “nomadology” and “history”?
