But back to oblique strategies, lines of flight are about opposing dichotomies, getting away from dichotomies. Alexander the Great is properly taught in a hierarchical structure of thought and reality by master Aristotle. Then he encounters the legendary knot that guards Asia and instead of untying it or marching back, he cuts it.

This is sometimes called “lateral thinking”, but that’s much too vague. Yes, thinking about the box, but what next? Keep the box and remember to think about it next time the need arises? When will the need arise? Grossly put, “deterritorialization” is about leaving the box altogether, escaping via the line of flight and getting to a new territory, a new patch of land.

Because you’re never sitting in place thinking of an abstract object for its own sake. You’re invading Asia. And even if you are an academic philosopher or self-taught meditator, you’re still trying to get somewhere. And this is the whole point: finding a dichotomy usually means you’re getting to the wrong place and must escape. Escaping may mean “you know what? Screw the identification problem, I’m doing a Fourier transform on this”. Escaping may mean escaping rational thought altogether, though this leads to insanity and is generally frowned upon.

Alas, you can’t learn much about Deleuze about the web because there’s so many critical theory university departments trying so much to make this about a critique of capitalism, Foucault 2.0. Deleuze is never a critique of anything — it is all about immanence, the plane of open possibilities and some tips & tricks of how to navigate it.

A quick note – I’m notified of your blog posts by the first sentence being alerted via twitter. Often, the first sentence doesn’t summarize the content of the post so I can’t tell whether I want to come here and read it or not. I’m worried I might be missing out on some good posts!