Anti-Oedipus

Paradox has always been a major part of my life. Defining this paradox as dualism alone does not feel right. I would say it is a cooperative paradox if that makes sense. I see dualism as sun versus moon, good versus evil, male versus female. A cooperative paradox would be sun and shadow, wisdom and knowledge, husband and wife. A cooperative paradox would be a yin yang symbol, or an Ankh. There is a flow between two realities, like a brother and sister ruling the same kingdom. For many years I have been torn between transcendent/cerebral/spiritual pursuits and organic/sexual/desire pursuits. My external struggles have only served to illustrate the internal strife that has plagued me since self awareness.

There have been times where I felt the refined senses, the beauty of spiritual purity was the lonely but true way. However, there was something liberating in the full power of loins, the animal sense of gratuitous fulfillment, the ripe strength and raw pleasure of sexuality. That was where the power of oxygenated blood and sweat and musk fueled real emotion, human feelings and dynamic that pushed dramatic art far beyond the crystalline beauty of the cerebral vision.

I guess that is why we quote Shakespeare, 

What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

Human beings are living earth, and they feel the world the way other beings cannot. Yes, we have no wings. Yes, we are condemned to all the troubles of mortal coil- cold, sweat, shit, spit, influenza, broken bones.... all of it! But we LIVE life more readily than the flickering holograms that watch us in our little rooms, whether those found in palatial Beverly Hill Estates or a Neolithic round house with its thatched roof. We have the palpitating beauty of a hummingbird imbued with the survival instinct of the cockroach.

My whole blasted point is, tonight I am excited because I have begun a book which promises a possible explanation, perhaps a justification or even better, clear interpretation of this cooperative paradox between the bestial and angelic components of a human being.

Anti-Oedipus, Capitalism and Schizophrenia, written by two Frenchmen, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, promises great things within the introduction. 

I am excited.

Cheers.

Anti-Oedipus, Penguin Classics