Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 10:03:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Greg J. Seigworth" <gseigwor-AT-marauder.millersv.edu>
Subject: Re: Practice of Nomad Philosophy




On Mon, 30 Sep 1996, Netscape User wrote:

> Dear readers,if ya'll will be patient, you'll see what this can lead to:
> namely some interesting discussion about living D and G in the real
> world. There is a difference between those cloistered dons of academia
> and those who have to actually battle the elements or one of the
> greatest monuments ever built to capitalism_ the U.S. Interstate system.
> How many of you been out there learning to survive without a car, money,
> or food, or without knowing anyone when you enter a strange big city?
> Has anyone written on how to "machine" a concept while doing any of the
> above? (I) can agree with Hoot Owl on this much: some dudes have been
> cooped up a little too long to be actually potent. Notice how Greg
> Seigworth non-chalantly blows me off: see Aug. 2, Friday, 1996. Dos
> vedanya, Ron H.

Welllllll .... I don't recall 'non-chalantly' blowing you off.  As I
remember you posted a msg alluding to your hitchhiking adventure (as
above) that was directed to deleuzians in general and a dozen or so names
in particular.  Mine among them.  At the time, I was responding to
something from Steve Devos and added a p.s. that said "to Netscape User:
huh? ... though I am intrigued ..." which, honestly, was me simply saying
"whatever you've got, tell me more but go ahead and share it with the
list."  I couldn't figure out why I was listed among the names (since I'm
hardly a 'cloistered don' ... I could easily find myself on the Interstate
this time next year if I don't quick knock my dissertation in the head)
and, anyway, mom and day taught me to be a little wary of hitchhikers. 

As for being cooped up too long, I won't bother to go into the local
political organizing and mediation work [etc] that I've done outside of
the university here in Lancaster Pa (after all, Alan Sokal can list his
connections too) but I don't think most people would characterize it as
cooped up.  Anyway ... I laughed and laughed when I saw your msg this
morning and, if it struck a nerve, it was somehow connected to the funny
bone.  I love it when people try to characterize each other on this list
'cause I figure that invariably it's totally wrong.  As someone who grew
up in Wentling's Corners Pa, got married in Turkey City, and now lives in
the land of the Amish (the only cloister I know is the Ephrata Cloister
just up the road from here), I'm more Hoot Owl Holler than Bostonian blue
blood (or something).  But I'd never ask the list a question like 'who is
this deleuze fellow?' (however Wayne phrased it).  The answer to that
question is the presumed starting point here (and there are links off of
this list and pleny of sites on net to find out some answers)--go to the 
site recently posted by Stephen O'Connell 
                   http://cougar.vut.edu.au/~jongr/Deleuze.html 

(I hope that's the right address.) Everything I've ever found during a net
search is already listed there as well as a nice little obit written by
O'Connell and Melissa McMahon on the man himself.  Even a guy in the midst
of a swamp with a computer and a modem should be able to find the most
basic information out.  Sometimes nomads can travel plenty far without
setting foot too far outside their own door; there are voyages one can
take that require little use of the thumb.  Even as mine rest on the space
key. 

Greg

P.S. To Joseph Nechvatal ... best place that I know to find a wonderful
elaboration on 'decontextualization' and the virtual conjunction of the
emotions would be Brian Massumi's "The Autonomy of Affect" (Cultural
Critique, Fall 1995, pp.83-109).  My own work, such as it is, (see 'the
dissertation or the interstate' above) is focussed in this same area.