Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus: A Critical Introduction and Guide

by Brent Adkins

The sheer volume and complexity of Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus can be daunting. What is an assemblage? What is a rhizome? What is a war machine? What is a body without organs? What is becoming-animal? Brent Adkins demonstrates that all the questions raised by A Thousand Plateaus are in service to Deleuze and Guattari's radical reconstruction of the methods and aims of philosophy itself.
To achieve this he argues that the crucial term for understanding A Thousand Plateaus is 'assemblage.' An assemblage is Deleuze and Guattari's answer to the perennial philosophical question, "What is a thing?" and they assert that assemblages are always found on a continuum between stasis and change. Each plateau is therefore concerned with a particular type of assemblage (e.g. social, political, linguistic) and its tendencies toward both stasis and change.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2015

About the author

Brent Adkins is Professor of Philosophy at Roanoke College.

Reviews

[katie luisa borgesius · Rating 2 out of 5]

there's a crazy dearth of decent commentary on ATP, this one's half alright.

[Ansh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can finally understand why there is so much appeal for the concepts of Deleuze and Guattari and their perspective of "perceptual semiotics" that looks at things differently than most of Western metaphysics.

This is a good critical guide for anyone new to this theory like me and analyzes many contemporary examples like information systems and 2008 recession to explain some of D&G's concepts.

[Reilly Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Brent! This is a great book about a great book. Deleuze is my favorite philosopher and it is beautiful to see his work handled with such care. I was already convinced of this book’s efficacy by how understandable it made A Thousand Plateaus, but I was further endeared to the author’s cause in his conclusion where he expresses his hope that this guide will facilitate MORE interpretations, MORE takeaways, rather than fewer.

A very Deleuzian approach to writing on Deleuze. One of the best books I’ve read in years

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent guide for reading through ATP. I used it as a reference for a good number of chapters on my recent read through.

[Aidan James · Rating 3 out of 5]

it is what it is

[Zoonanism · Rating 4 out of 5]

One feels more than a little gratitude towards Adkins for having endured all the nonsense verse in A Thousand Plateaus to then present what if any arguments albeit groundless the text contains.

Almost all the disciplines that D&G touch upon to then bring into play with signs and symbols from other unrelated disciplines, they misunderstand or misrepresent.

Any primer on Pragmatics, Biosemiotics or the history of Symbolic forms will convey more to a reader than D&Gs mess of plateaus and lines of flight.

I must confess every time I hold A Thousand Plateaus and look at the list of books in the bibliography I feel a certain sadness. Because there was a point in time when I really felt that this book contains novel ideas drawn from all those realms of inquiry. Alas it's no such thing. Which is why Adkins should be applauded for salvaging what he has. I wish he was just a tiny bit more brave and would go full Sokal.

[RoaringRatalouille · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're new to D&G's work, as I was, this is the right book for you. It helps clarify some of D&G's core concepts and embeds them within their broader philosophical project. Nonetheless, having read A Thousand Plateaus, it becomes obvious that Adkins' guide in some sense runs counter to D&G's philosophical project. This is because he condenses the multiple potential meanings of their plateaus, thereby somewhat limiting them. But don't let this put you off, this book was an indispensable aid to me.

[John Madera · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid primer on this beautifully allusive flow-book of perceptual semiotics.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

overly repetitious, sometimes vague, sometimes elucidating. lots of redundant sentences one after the other.