Deleuze's ABCs

August 11, 2007 3:37 AM

Deleuze's ABCs A year before his sensational suicide by defenestration, the philosopher Gilles Deleuze, known for his refusal to appear on television, offered to set the record straight with close student and friend, Claire Parnet, on the condition that it not be released until after his death. The interview, spanning eight hours, was conceived as an abécédaire, like a child's ABC book, with headings of "A comme animal," "B comme boisson," C comme culture". L'Abécédaire de Gilles Deleuze: [Part 1][Part 2][Part 3]. Overview.
posted by Frankieist (12 comments total)

I've just read "As as in animal" so far. There's some interesting ideas strewn throughout, like that a work of art can be seen reduced to its simplest form in the animal practice of establishing a territory. And some interesting confessions, such as that he disliked pets because he dislikes "things that rub". And then it ends by veering off unforgivably into the very French.

I expect this pattern to hold for the other letters as well.
posted by creasy boy at 4:07 AM on August 11, 2007

G comme cauche is one of my favorite letters
posted by Frankieist at 4:09 AM on August 11, 2007

Oh but I forgot to add: it's not clear to me how any of this "sets the record straight".
posted by creasy boy at 4:09 AM on August 11, 2007

so clever, but funny too. What's disturbing in the movie is when you catch a glimpse at his hands, because the length of his nails would give him a ticket to play the sorcerer in any heroic fantasy movie. But when he is asked about it, he looks at these nails like it's the first time he sees them. He talks about the concept behind Bjorn Borg's playing too, and there are many ideas throughout, but what is really interesting is how he stretches the implications of a little set of concepts.
posted by nicolin at 4:24 AM on August 11, 2007

Deleuze means a lot to me, but I haven't got too much from this yet. Also, transcriptions of this have been online for quite a while.

Good to see the man on the front page, though.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 5:41 AM on August 11, 2007

Nice post.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:45 AM on August 11, 2007

I understand how a person can be a close friend, but unclear about what it means to be a close student.

/nitpick
posted by Hildegarde at 6:08 AM on August 11, 2007

Well...people often use the word "student" in a more Platonic sense, at least in the humanities, don't they? I.e. if you were a "student" of Heidegger or you "studied under" Heidegger this means you worked together with him very closely, and probably as a post-grad or post-doc, not as an undergraduate -- it doesn't just mean that you sat in his class and got a grade. So as a student of his thought and work she was particularly close to him.
posted by creasy boy at 6:44 AM on August 11, 2007

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought defenstrate couldn't be used reflexively. Isn't it a bit like saying "A year before his sensational suicide by stabbing,"? It just seems odd.

Excuse me while I undefenstrate.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:26 AM on August 11, 2007

Blue_beetle, what are you asking? Defenestrate is, literally, de fenestra, down from the window.
posted by vitia at 2:24 PM on August 11, 2007

That's so weird; I just picked up Deleuze's Difference and Repetition at the local Borders. And I actually bought it because it seemed like it was just something I was supposed to have, hidden behind some other, innocuous book....
posted by paladin at 5:42 PM on August 11, 2007

I've always admired the Parnet interviews.
posted by OmieWise at 7:51 AM on August 13, 2007