"Foucault said once that with Deleuze philosophy became theatre. Well, with the English Deleuzeans it becomes circus. Philosophy for clowns."
So M.arc opens the comments to my previous post. Golly, dogmat has never seen so much activity!
Clowns, eh? Those sad, determined faces. There is no lightness, no real joy to be found in the circus - a heavy, frightening place filled with jeering laughter.
"...hope it is not going to go Nick Landish again…" whistles the anonymous Jean X, (the cadence of the passage suggests a certain regular commentator). Nope, I don't think it will. Nick Land and his 'movement' seem, with bleary hindsight, to have been able to laugh at themselves. With the new "Deleuzean mafias" (such a snappy catch-all phrase: thanks, Marc), I'm not sure fun poking is permitted.
Often I find myself fielding questions about whether I shall be taking part in this or that reading group or seminar. I tell my friends, "I am not interested in becoming a Deleuzian along with everyone else. I want to engage with him seriously when I am ready; and I am not ready." Their eyes cloud over with suspicion and concern. Someone brandishes a text at me, another lays a threatening/forgiving hand on my shoulder. Do I want my academic career to sleep with the fishes?
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