Deleuzism: A Metacommentary

by Ian Buchanan

The conviction that Gilles Deleuze is doing something radical in his work has been accompanied by a corresponding anxiety as to how to read it. In this rigorous and lucid work, Ian Buchanan takes up the challenge by answering the following How should we read Deleuze? How should we read with Deleuze?
To show us how Deleuze’s philosophy works, Buchanan begins with Melville’s notion that “a great book is always the inverse of another book that could only be written in the soul, with silence and blood.” Buchanan demonstrates that the figure of two books—one written in ink and the other written in blood—lies at the center of Deleuze’s hermeneutics and that a special relation must be established in order to read the second book from the first. This relation is Deleuzism. By explicating elemental concepts in Deleuze—desire, flow, the nomad—Buchanan finds that, despite Deleuze’s self-declared moratorium on dialectics, he was in several important respects a dialectician. In essays that address the “prehistory” of Deleuze’s philosophy, his methodology, and the utopic dimensions of his thought, Buchanan extracts an apparatus of social critique that arises from the philosopher’s utopian impulse.
Deleuzism is a work that will engage all those with an interest in the twentieth-century’s most original philosopher.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory

269 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Born in rural Western Australia, Buchanan grew up in the suburbs of Perth. He did his BA and PhD in the English and Comparative Literature program at Murdoch University, graduating in 1995. His PhD dissertation, entitled, "Heterology: Towards a Transcendental Empiricist Approach to Cultural Studies" attempted to fuse the work of de Certeau and Deleuze for the purposes of doing cultural analysis

Reviews

[Tom L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Less a guidebook to Deleuze--which is what the title might suggest--than an attempt to reconstruct a dialectical Deleuze out of the philosophy of someone who always spoke passionately against dialectics (a project with which I am sympathetic). Buchanan's approach is highly influenced by Fredric Jameson's notion of 'metacommentary'; indeed the book is as often about Jameson as it is Deleuze. The book will probably be more helpful to those interested in how Deleuze and Jameson's disparate work can be brought together than to those looking for a straightforward introduction to Deleuze. Buchanan writes in a clear and accessible style that sometimes seems diametrically opposed to the richness of Deleuze's own language. If this is a pro or con, will be for each individual reader to decide. If you can figure out the significance of the ripply beefcake on the cover, let me know.

[Saint Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

the hot muscled beefy guy on the cover caught my attention.
Amazing commentary on Deleuze and I loved the analyses of Blade Runner, music, postmodernism and the ethical side to Deleuze’s ideas. Definitely gave me a lot of clarity and a way to read and comprehend Deleuze’s confusing and remarkable ideas. It was a bit hard to start, this book is for ppl who already know about Deleuze and have read at least one of his books. The language and writing is simple yet playful, making it easy to follow even through you don’t understand everything

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review published in SubStance 100 (2003): 144-150.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping this would help. My metareview is that it didn't very much.