[lbo-talk] Rhizomatic?

[Sean Johnson Andrews]

It is definitely from Deleuze and Guattari, though not just Anti-Oedipus.  It also figures into most of their theory of schizoanalysis, particularly in Thousand Plateaus.  As for why they choose rhizome, it is, as in this sentence, supposed to be opposed to the hierarchy of the "arborescent"  (tree-like, i.e. deep roots, towering structure).  Maybe it's just because they thought the term "Rhizomatic" sounds cool.  You have to admit, as academic terms go, there are some very nice consonants working together in that one. 

I suspect someone knows of where they might have defended this choice of term or why biological metaphors were the starting point.  And maybe they can answer this as well: D&G suggest the rhizomatic as a strategy for challenging the supposedly dominant tree-like power, but when Hardt and Negri use it, they are basically talking about capital working this way as well.  Considering the predominance of corporate conglomerates, I don't understand this use: and since the latter also pose the multitude as a sort of rhizomatic movement, how do they square even their own claim with the original meaning:  if the rhizomatic is effective because power is arborescent, how is it still effective if power and capital are also rhizomatic?  Makes the "snake-oil" thesis seem more convincing.

-s

----- Original Message ----- 

  From: Zachary Levenson 

  To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org 

  Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 7:10 AM

  Subject: [lbo-talk] Rhizomatic?

  Is anyone familiar with this term? I encountered it in reading Hardt and Negri's 'Empire':

  "The constitution of a global market organized along a disciplinary model is traversed by tensions that open mobility in every direction; it is a transversal mobility that is rhizomatic rather than arborescent" (253).

  I believe it comes from Deleuze and Guattari's 'Anti-Oedipus,' but I am not clear as to what it entails, i.e., why they select rhizome as metaphor rather than any other omni-directional mobility. Any theory-heads on list?

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  Zachary Levenson

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  Hiroshima Laboratory

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  Zachary.Levenson at gmail.com

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  "Latter-day capitalism. Like it or not, it's the society we live in. Even the standard of right and wrong has been subdivided, made sophisticated. Within good, there's fashionable good and unfashionable good, there's formal and then there's casual; there's hip, there's cool, there's trendy, there's snobbish. Mix 'n' match. Like pulling on a Missoni sweater over Trussardi slacks and Pollini shoes, you can now enjoy hybrid styles of morality. It's the way of the world--philosophy starting to look more and more like business administration."

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