A major work in the development of critical theory in the late 20th century, ANTI-OEDIPUS is an essential text for feminists, literary theorists, s...
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Dec 16, 2009
Lenore
rated it: 
A Thousand Plateaus this is not, but reading it in a townie bar did attract a douchey philosophy undergrad. to my table, thus warranting my star demotion from two to one.
_Anti-Oedipus_ is the worst example of content dictating form, a schizophrenic on an errant walk through the park. Notice there's no discussion of this on goodreads.com? Even with the compelling premise of synthesizing Marxism and psychoanalysis to situate desire as a productive process, D&G's desiring machines are More...
_Anti-Oedipus_ is the worst example of content dictating form, a schizophrenic on an errant walk through the park. Notice there's no discussion of this on goodreads.com? Even with the compelling premise of synthesizing Marxism and psychoanalysis to situate desire as a productive process, D&G's desiring machines are More...
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Nov 26, 2010
Vaughn
rated it: 
One of my top few favorite books ever. Wacky prose that hides its dense, educated side with unabashededly mindfucking disregard for mores, academic humility, linearity. It's more or less a critique of the early Lacan's emphasis on the Oedipal complex and the way that emphasis typifies structural analysis in anthropology and psychology, which was trying to edge out philosophy in France at the time. Of course, since it's Deleuze, it also has a vitalist, anti-law, anti-transcendence agenda. Sin
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Dec 16, 2009
Greg
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I could possibly say that this book ruined my life. I have never grappled with a book for as long as this one, for months I read and re-read it. I decided that I had to incorporate it into a paper that ended up taking me over a year to actually write and then edit, and then edit some more and then write some more before I finally decided to mail the stupid thing out to the professor from a mailbox that happened to be in front of some buildings that some planes would crash into about an hour or
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(20 people liked it)
Jun 09, 2007
Aaron
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I think people FEEL like they should give this book five stars -- but, unlike machines, they are not honest with themselves and feel compelled to rate it higher than it deserves. 1968 drivel.
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(5 people liked it)
Dec 01, 2007
Graham
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This is pop philosophy and not serious political thought. If Orwell read this he would have eaten it and then puked it out projectile vomit style. It is the postmodern writing that so terrifies Sokal. All of that being said, it is damned fun to read. Just don't take it too seriously. People who fall deeply into this stuff become pretentious hipster assholes. The introduction by Foucault is important if you want any chance in understanding this mess. It sure could use more footnotes.
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(1 person liked it)
Aug 24, 2011
James
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This book is one giant attack on the traditional liberal-democratic view of the individual as a responsible agent and citizen. It is also a profound materialist critique of old-school Marxism and Freudianism. Since I'm a big fan of both of these schools of thought, this was a tough pill to swallow, but swallow it I did, and to great effect.
One of the big themes that stuck with me from the first chapter on is the idea of paranoia becoming a very real influence in the way that we concept More...
One of the big themes that stuck with me from the first chapter on is the idea of paranoia becoming a very real influence in the way that we concept More...
Oct 25, 2011
Shawn
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As finished as I'm going to be... I started this book two years ago over winter break during grad school. I got as far as the conclusion (p. 273). Now, I have read about twenty pages or so, and it is all I can handle. It is going back on my shelf. I can say that at one point I knew what was going on with this text, but now, picking it up two years later, with many other texts completed... I have either no clue, or no interest in understanding this work.
I will merely add to the numero More...
I will merely add to the numero More...
Nov 08, 2007
Controversial literary project that pigeonholed Deleuze for many scholars, a bizarre synthesis of an eclectic range of texts. There is a spontaneity of thought that many find inspiring, (particularly artists) while it tends to repel a reading grounded in analytic philosophy. The criticism of this style of discourse helps orient the text just as much as its interpretations do.
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Apr 06, 2008
When I was in England I joined an informal discussion group about this book. The group included my advisor and his wife. We read the first paragraph and his wife said, "That paragraph is sexist." My advisor swore at his wife, and then the discussion group was done.
Oct 18, 2007
Count
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to me this was the philosophical equivalent of thinking you know what jazz is (smoky, midnight, bar) and then hearing bitches brew ... challenging but in yr face liberating. i especially admired the strategic use of dull old Kant to mess with heads.
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Feb 13, 2011
Jeff
rated it:
The introduction by Foucault is certainly a healthy way to view this book. As a guide to leading a non-fascist life, this work condenses a great number of ideas, and attempts to dismantle/discourse on the hang-ups of would-be revolutionary groups.
I would describe the writing style as delirious. At times it is very lucid, hitting hard at ideas standing in the way of the non-fascist life and free thought. At others, the prose descends, or rather extends (explodes?) down lines of escape More...
I would describe the writing style as delirious. At times it is very lucid, hitting hard at ideas standing in the way of the non-fascist life and free thought. At others, the prose descends, or rather extends (explodes?) down lines of escape More...
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(2 people liked it)
May 19, 2007
ifjuly
rated it:
in my top 5 theory books of all time, and one of my favorite books across genre/divides, period. the style makes me smile every time i read it, and the point is one of the most important to me as well.
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 05, 2011
I've actually had a copy of this book for several months, but, honestly, it keeps tossing me out around page 7 or so. Like my mind shatters after about 7 pages of this. I can't tell whether or not it is bullshit. It seems like something is going on here that maybe I am not equipped to understand, almost like when I am trying to read a book in an antiquated form of French (because my modern French isn't even very good). This book is a little vortex, a little black hole that keeps pulling me b
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(2 people liked it)
Jul 23, 2010
Ryan
rated it: 
Before A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari embarked upon an epic critical analysis of modern culture and life. Essentially a synthesis of Freudian psychology and Marxist analysis, this is one of the weirdest and most interesting books I've ever read. The reader must be prepared to confront an idiosyncratic (and possibly obfuscating, if we are to believe the critics) sort of jargon: "desiring machines" plug into one another to form "assemblages" that constitute the socia
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Nov 21, 2011
Ralowe
rated it:
i'm coming away from this pretty sure... uh, well questioning, actually, that since desiring machines produce production, whether the form of desire can be altered. following what is given here i don't really know. what barely sustained my thin interest throughout reading this: sensing the stylistic ancestral traces of what would later proudly become the ad busters-sounding graffito on subsequent oscar grant "riots." it becomes increasingly difficult to deny that this was a book i read
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Oct 07, 2008
KATEtheGREATESTBESTONE
rated it:
yo capitalism. i have sunbeams coming out of my ass.
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(3 people liked it)
Aug 31, 2011
Jonfaith
rated it:
My review from 1994 would be gushing , near febrile about the insights revealed this suicide vest of a book. My 2011 self appreciates the arsenal of metaphors and allusions established. It also recognizes the limits of application of this in ordinary life. That is the present project, no? I mean we are living in some guise, whether o not as bodies without organs; but we find ourselves trapped in associations both molar and molecular: all the while feeling for stones in our pockets as we're pro
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Jan 06, 2012
Grig
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In his foreword, M Foucault interprets Anti-Oedipus as a book of ethics. This isn't evident from the text itself, as the authors are (almost) never explicit about how one should live. Instead they invent and combine neologisms like desiring-production, body without organs and deterritorialization to build their philosophy, making for a confounding couple hundred pages before you get a handle on the terminology. And the translators into English don't help - I'm sure they tried their best, but som
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Nov 17, 2010
Its a milestone in thinking.
I like the ideas of 'desiring machines' 'body without organ'and 'desiring production'.I would like to categorize these ideas as 'practical/literalistic' rather than spiritual or philosophical.
I liked the line: 'the child is a metaphysical being'(p-52).This cannot be true! but must be true! Here comes the necessity of 'desiring machine' that makes two apparently opposite statements at a time: the child is a machine; also, the child is full of desire.
I like the ideas of 'desiring machines' 'body without organ'and 'desiring production'.I would like to categorize these ideas as 'practical/literalistic' rather than spiritual or philosophical.
I liked the line: 'the child is a metaphysical being'(p-52).This cannot be true! but must be true! Here comes the necessity of 'desiring machine' that makes two apparently opposite statements at a time: the child is a machine; also, the child is full of desire.
Jan 07, 2009
Troy
rated it:
Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze and Guattari is one of the harder books I've ever read. It's theory and it's an attempt to think differently; an attempt to change our underlying and unfocused ideology; an attempt to rewrite psychoanalysis and an attempt to think through Capitalism. Hell of a book. Worth the trouble.
Aug 09, 2010
Dan
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I only understood this book in bits and pieces. While some of the concepts Deleuze and Guattari employ are familiar ideas from Sigmund Freud or Karl Marx, there are a number of concepts that are not clearly defined in the text, at least that I was able to see. The book is abstract and dense, sort of the postmodern equivalent of Hegel.
While the text is difficult, the argument Deleuze and Guattari make is fairly significant. My view of the psychoanalytic industry has changed as a res More...
While the text is difficult, the argument Deleuze and Guattari make is fairly significant. My view of the psychoanalytic industry has changed as a res More...
Sep 18, 2010
Michael
rated it: 
I cannot get the gist of the argument... al i see are creaky old sixties/seventies kisch-think; Marcuse's One Dimensional Man has covered most of this already, surely?
Ok, as you may guess from that last comment, i did give up on it - maybe too soon.
Ok, as you may guess from that last comment, i did give up on it - maybe too soon.
Jan 02, 2009
Leonard
rated it:
By far the best book from the Deleuze/Guattari team, this is a fascinating study of the contradictions of late-period capitalism put through a Freudian/mythological lens that makes it surprisingly graspable.
Apr 30, 2011
Natasha
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What??? This is a very rambling book. I sometimes got what the authors were talking about, but more times than not, I had no idea what was going on. The book was interesting at times. In general, just a really whacky book.
Jun 05, 2010
In my opinion, grasping the materialism v. idealism distinction is key to solidly understanding D&G's conceptual vision in this work. Loving the book so far! - Currently on the second chapter.
Sep 30, 2009
Derek
rated it:
methOD ACTing Deleuze & Guattari's Anti-Œdipus whil st untRAVELing [deTERRItorializing [re\VERSEnC0DING:]] X-country ' hatCHing cLams & calaMARii: http://5cense.com/09/anti-oed_x-count.ht...
Jan 15, 2010
it is difficult to wrap my head around some of the thoughts in this book but i find it fascinating and hope that one day i will grasp it. maybe after a few years of school?
Feb 10, 2009
Lamar
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When you have gone as far as you want to go before really understanding Lacan then go here. You will need to have a very strong grasp on Spinoza and Nietzsche.
Dec 16, 2009
Sachin
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Trying to philosophize and critique culture and capitalism from the point of view of a schizhoprenic is in some sense trying to go beyond Freud, Marx, Foucault, Derrida and Lacan. You find some interesting alternatives to the ideas like `roots'(hierarchically structured , `logocentric thought') in the metaphor of `rhizomes' ( spreading horizontally and connecting randomly at tips), and the terms like `desiring machines' and `body without organs' seem to be alternatives for Freudian `eros' and `
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Oct 13, 2011
I don't know if I'm sure what's going on... but thanks to the introduction, I'm pretty sure I'm uprooting fascism. And I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to go read Henry Miller and Beckett.
