jonathanatographer

Don’t Deconstruct

We have no need for a Deleuze which deconstructs. A process of deconstruction that is not accompanied by complementary constructivisms may be simply tracing a line through chaos. Even more than “The World Must Be Destroyed!” – A Plane Must Be Constructed! The decon line that is traced, it is true, is a series, and series, it is true, are very dear to Deleuze’s works – the Logic of Sense does not have chapters, only series. And series, it is further true, continue to operate in Deleuze’s thought: they operate with power (puissance) in the book on Leibniz and folds. But, after the Logic of Sense, Deleuze never again constructs a book with series in stead of chapters. Rather, as in A Thousand Plateaus with Félix Guattari, what would elsewhere be a chapter and what once might have been a series is now a plateau – thirteen of a thousand.

The method of constructing a plateau and the problem of saying what a plateau is is, for sure, quite an undertaking. So why not turn to saying something about one or two differences between the series-chapter and the plateau-chapter . . . ? (This, of course and for sure, will have to be filled out or deleted later). The Logic of Sense proceeds series by series, each series put into action by Deleuze in order to construct a concept of sense . . . ? Perhaps. Or, each series is put into action by Deleuze in order to construct a plane of immanence, an outside of thought which operates, organizes and creates according to a logic of sense.

In this second option one might say then that each series is itself a concept, and to define a concept here we will have to use what is given to us in Deleuze’s final book with Guattari, What is Philosophy? There they put quite a bit of emphasis both on the need for creating concepts, as well as the requirement – absolutely necessary for a philosophical concept – that each component of a concept not only be dependent on every other component of the concept which comprises them, but that each component is also variable, capable of varying in accordance with the variations of every other component. With these variations there is, of course, a threshold. When this threshold is reached, or crossed, the components will be varying to such a degree that another concept will be formed. 100º C being a threshold for water and steam.