Desiring Machines...

[sodapopinski51]

Collectively we are turning into mechanical beings. Spiritually vacuous, but still bound to the various sacred texts of our personal choosing. Libido is a connection to our animal selves, and hence it is a way of breaking down the technical and overly rational experiences that dominate modern civilization. We could just as easily say the same about

Comments

[seasontoseason]

wouldn't D&G disagree with this idea that there are libidinal or "animal selves" and "rational selves"-- clearly separated? there are code-able and non-code-able flows... there is desire and there is le représenté déplacé, the "lure or fake image" which results from repression, e.g. (of course!) Oedipus. but there are not, for D&G, "primal drives", really, are there? If there are, i mean, they aren't really "primal", since they do not precede coding.
But, you know, I might be wrong on this-- I need to go re-read the "savages, barbarians,civilized men" section. or maybe get some sleep. haha. yay 6:43 am.

[sodapopinski51]

I never said that animal selves were separate from mechanical selves. What Guattari says in Chaosmosis is that the psyche is depicted as "strata" of different intensities. So animal and mechanical are connected but layered like sediments on the floor of a sea.

[seasontoseason]

ok ,so not separate selves, but different 'strata' of a single self?
even so, I guess I want to question the idea of "animal" , as a category, and "rational" as a categoryy, that can be applied to existing 'things' in distinct strata in a way that precedes coding.
maybe you weren't trying to say that it precedes, i'm not sure now.

[sodapopinski51]

Yes. Different strata within the self. My reading of D&G (and my own personal perspective) is that people vacillate, and that these various strata influence each preceding and subsequent layer. A layer of one type of sediment can lay upon another different kind of sediment producing an assortment of rock formations. The human psyche is formed in a similar way. The logic of each successive layer impacts all of the layers it touches. Creating distinct inter-connections. I think of it being like a Jungian animas/anima. The male and female sides of the psyche are always present but one side might become manifest in certain situations and another side might become repressed.