Reviews for On an(archy) & schizoanalysis

The average rating for On an(archy) & schizoanalysis based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-10-01 00:00:00 Donald Jean Recommended to me for a while now, I finally got around to reading Rolando Perez's On Anarchy & Schizoanalysis. The strength of the book is Perez's ability to take the broad, abstract concepts of Deleuze & Guattari and give them corporeality by applying these concepts to an(archist) practice. What's with the parentheses? This is from Perez himself, who uses "an(archy)" mainly to separate himself from the 80's punk version of anarchism in favor of a proto-post-anarchism, but also because the parentheses reflect the post-modern propensity for Heideggerian wordplay which actually had some intellectual cache at the time. This - along with the name-dropping of everybody who was cool in the 1980s - makes the text feel a little dated. That said, there are some strong points. He easily encapsulates a number Continental thinkers whose work is notoriously difficult by hitting them where their ideas intersect with praxis. Perez connects this post-modern flight into abstraction with Capitalism through D&G's concept of "bodies without organs". Also noteworthy is his pointing out that the Western tradition has always viewed desire as fundamentally a "lack", and that realizing the positive, creative character of desire necessary for liberation. This theme is developed further in his chapter on feminism, where he shows the Western view of "absence" permeating Freud's misogynistic psychology. It's too bad the book ends at this point. I would have liked to see more elaboration on the positive structure of desire vis. Anti-Oedipus , since so much of D&G's heady concepts are made concrete in this text.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-01-05 00:00:00 TORALF JOHANNESSEN This is the first text on D&G I have come across that actually elaborates on their ideas in a clear and easily-understandable manner. I have tried to think of the applicability of D&G's ideas in my own life and manner of viewing the world, and Perez has finally given me insight into how and why lines of flight, bodies without organs, rhizomes, etc. are important to my own life project. This books gives me motivation to re-read some of Capitalism and Schizophrenia in order to seek out new thoughts.