Critic speak is tough, but we've got you covered.
Quote :A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
Here we have made use of everything that came within range, what was closest as well as farthest away. We have assigned clever pseudonyms to prevent recognition. Why have we used our own names? Out of habit, purely out of habit….We are writing this book as a rhizome. It is composed of plateaus. We have given it a circular form, but only for laughs.
Is this literary theory or an obstacle course? Or maybe some twisted joke with big words? What Deleuze and Guattari (if you can even call them that) are saying is that they took all that stuff everyone's been saying about text and discourses and how authors and unique selves don't even exist, and they turned that beat AROUND. Those silly little poststructuralists wanted a text without authors? Boom, here it is. They thought they could radicalize Western thought? Well, Deleuze and Guattari are out to uproot the whole system.
While most of their contemporaries were applying poststructuralist theories to other people's texts, Deleuze and Guattari kicked things up a notch by writing a book that mimicked exactly how poststructuralists see the world. Nifty idea, if you ask us!
But despite what they tell you, Deleuze and Guattari's antics aren't just for laughs: this book is literally trying to turn readers on (oh yeah, in that kind of way). Knowledge is seriously exciting for these boys. Who woulda thunk plant metaphors could make for such a party?