in _a thousand plateaus_, deleuze and guatarri describe the body without
organs in terms of the plane of consistency or composition (consistency
being defined in terms of differences in themselves--unformed elements,
fractional dimensions, smooth space). it is a-formal and insubstantial,
beyond representation and pre-conceptual, and concerns pure becomings and
nomadic essences. the BwO is like the abstract line (abstraction as a
real, material force, like an abstract musical composition or abstract
painting). the body without organs escapes strata (physiochemical,
organic, and alloplastic "thickenings"), and thus escapes or forms the
condition for the assemblage of machines (including desiring machines, but
also including semiotic and a-semiotic machines of all sorts, machines of
enunciation, and abstract or deterritorializing machines, the latter of
which are like cutting edges opening onto the body without organs). three
things characterize the BwO... individuation by haecceity
(event/singularity), the production of intensities from the zero degree,
and variation/becoming. it is indeed the virtual, or rather the virtual
becoming actual. the problem, as deleuze and guattari so rightly state, is
how does one become a BwO, a joyful body of eternal return, without falling
into destruction and death. bill bogard
organs in terms of the plane of consistency or composition (consistency
being defined in terms of differences in themselves--unformed elements,
fractional dimensions, smooth space). it is a-formal and insubstantial,
beyond representation and pre-conceptual, and concerns pure becomings and
nomadic essences. the BwO is like the abstract line (abstraction as a
real, material force, like an abstract musical composition or abstract
painting). the body without organs escapes strata (physiochemical,
organic, and alloplastic "thickenings"), and thus escapes or forms the
condition for the assemblage of machines (including desiring machines, but
also including semiotic and a-semiotic machines of all sorts, machines of
enunciation, and abstract or deterritorializing machines, the latter of
which are like cutting edges opening onto the body without organs). three
things characterize the BwO... individuation by haecceity
(event/singularity), the production of intensities from the zero degree,
and variation/becoming. it is indeed the virtual, or rather the virtual
becoming actual. the problem, as deleuze and guattari so rightly state, is
how does one become a BwO, a joyful body of eternal return, without falling
into destruction and death. bill bogard