Archives mensuelles : juillet 2019

In August I will be live blogging my reading of Laruelle’s most recently published book TETRALOGOS An opera of philosophies. In my opinion it is his best book, and also his most Deleuzian. My first reactions can be found here: … Lire la suite →

It would be a mistake to see Deleuze and Guattari’s WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY? as to any significant degree devoted to engaging with Laruelle’s work. There are only two mentions of Laruelle, and they are contained in footnotes.Both reject his scientism. … Lire la suite →

I do not « hijack » philosophical discussions, I do conceptual analysis – the disappointed philosopher Reading Deleuze and Guattari’s WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY? today, we are forced to ask: what is this book for us? What is « WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY? »? Deleuze and … Lire la suite →

As is usually the case for me, these notes have no claim to conclusive force, authoritative status or definitive form. My default activity on this blog (as well as on twitter, facebook, youtube, and elsewhere) is that of thinking out … Lire la suite →

PLURALISM vs ABSOLUTISM There seems to be a conflict (or « agon ») between hypothesis 1 (pluralism) and hypothesis 2 (absolutism) in Deleuze’s work. Deleuze is conscious of the conflict and has tried out various solutions. In his DIFFERENCE AND REPETITION the … Lire la suite →

PLURALISM In my philosophical writing (readily available here on my blog AGENT SWARM and on my academia.edu page) I discuss the ideas of a number of contemporary thinkers who work in the domain of epistemological and ontological pluralism. My analyses … Lire la suite →

I first saw ALIEN when it came out in 1979, in Sydney Australia. There was none of the hysterical claptrap one reads about, of people vomiting or running out of the theatre or fainting, or whatever. People were totally focused … Lire la suite →

Perhaps the archetypal example of the fusion we find in ALIEN between the Gothic, the techno-scientific, and the bio-deconstructive is Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS. However, the film ALIEN is a much more abstract story, much more deterritorialised. … Lire la suite →

Deleuze does not discuss ALIEN in his Cinema books (more on that later). So we must turn to some of his other discussions to find useful materials, in his analyses of films and also of paintings, and in his theoretical … Lire la suite →

Even if the novelization of ALIEN is more of a straightforward narrative and less visceral horror than the film, the incipit on dreaming is brilliant. Alan Dean Foster characterises each of the crew in terms of their style of dreaming … Lire la suite →