Hari, Ted and a Watered-up Deleuze [re: Re: nettime: Hari Kuzru/Rewiring 2]

[EDP <artlore@sirius.com> (by way of Pit Schultz <pit@contrib.de>)]

[from: EDP <artlore@sirius.com>]

The following is a short response to Ted Byfield's response to Hari 
Kunzru--Ed Phillips-edphil@minds.com

Thanks Ted for sending that interesting piece of writing over nettime.
I'm intrigued by your discussion but am confused by some of the
distinctions you make and the terms you use. Much of my befuddlement
centers around your use of that old standby, "vulgar." Manuel's use of
Deleuze did not strike me as "vulgarization;" and to accuse someone of
vulgarizing the nomadic readings of "A Thousand Plateaus" strikes me
as a parody of a belleletrist put-down. D & G appropriated the "war
machine" from Dumezil and threw a little Mumfordian "megamachine" into
the mix; where then did Manuel De Landa draw the "war machine" from?
I agree with you that Manuel's book should be read critically, as
should Mumford, Dumezil, and Deleuze. However, I feel compelled to
point out that, as Walter Hopps said in another context, De Landa
actually "watered-up" some of the ideas that Deleuze voraciously
foraged through in "Capitalism and Schizophrenia."

Perhaps you were playing with idea of a hierarchy of vulgarization,
and with the idea of a history of decline and debasement. One could
reverse the order and say that Deleuze has "watered-up" some of
Neitzsche's ideas. It seems that certain elements in a tradition
accrete and that readings can become more nuanced. Nietzsche often
went for a "technical" effect with some of his tropes. Deleuze and De
Landa, as well as you and I, are swerving off from that lead.


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