29 Apr 05
 
 
 
 
28 Apr 05
 
 
 
 
 
11 Apr 05

Fight Club and the Deleuzian Century

I was going to wait until everything was completed with this before announcing this, but since that's been pushed back to fall, I figured that now is as good a time as any. My paper for Expos 2 (Expository Writing 2) got accepted for publication in the undergrad journal at Rutgers, Dialogues@RU. As of now, they haven't announced the winners of the prizes, which are $500 for first place and $250 for second and third place. Obviously I'm pretty psyched about all this.

As you can see, the title has changed since last time (formerly "Fight Club as Postmodern Film"). That's not the only thing that has changed, as it basically underwent an almost complete rewrite. I'm more satisfied now with the end-product though: in addition to being a stronger paper overall in my opinion, it has the benefit of being critiqued by someone who has relatively little theory background, so hopefully it's an easier read.

No need for a disclaimer this time. If you care to, you can read the final version here: Fight Club and the Deleuzian Century (see update for newer link).

Update: Hooray for generous prizes!!11 $500 the richer am I.

Update (15 Feb 2006): The Dialogues@RU journal has uploaded PDFs of the 2005 articles (which includes my own), along with the editor's commentary and my response. The updated link is Fight Club and the Deleuzian Century. You may also want to check out the other essays in the 2005 issue.

Comments1
 
 
06 Apr 05

Book Review of Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy by Manuel Delanda

Delanda, Manuel. Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy. New York: Continuum, 2002.

Manuel Delanda is not the least controversial of Deleuzians. His earlier book A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History attempted a synthesis of Gilles Deleuze, historian Fernand Braudel, and non-linear dynamics and, while a fascinating read, it still leaves something to be desired. In his latest book Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy (hereafter referred to as Intensive Science) Delanda again attempts a synthesis, but this time without the history. Essentially, Delanda looks for resonances between Deleuze’s ontology and epistemology and recent discoveries which have been made independently in systems theory, complexity theory, and non-linear dynamics. A book written for both no one and everyone, philosophers and scientists alike, Intensive Science assumes nothing, starts from the beginning, and makes the reader feel comfortable with the concepts before moving on. Among it and all the other works it cites, Intensive Science is most likely the easiest read.

One might attempt to compare Deleuze scholarship with Nietzsche scholarship. In this case, Delanda’s Deleuze is closer to Kaufmann’s Nietzsche than it is to Bataille’s. That is to say, the Deleuze presented by Delanda is recognizable, even if his fingernails are trimmed. Delanda deftly juggles some of Deleuze’s most impenetrable texts, such as Logic of Sense, Difference and Repetition, and A Thousand Plateaus without batting an eye. Overall, Delanda’s analysis is both illuminating and creative. This book is highly recommended, even (especially) for those who are not familiar with anything I’ve talked about above.

Comments2
05 Apr 05
 
03 Apr 05
01 Apr 05
 

April fool's

I hope you don't all think my joke is lame. I wish I could take credit for the text but it comes from the (now defunct) drew.corrupt.net. I got a kick out of it back in 2002 and thought it deserved a revival.

Update: For those who missed it, I've archived the april 1st joke here.

Comments2