Peter Pál Pelbart's 'Cartography of Exhaustion' Is Exhilarating |

8202019 Peter Paacutel Pelbarts Cartography of Exhaustion Is Exhilarating |

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Peter Paacutel Pelbarts Cartography of Exhaustion Is Exhilarating

Explaining his theoretical background Peter Paacutel

Pelbart writes ldquoMore than two decades ago parallelto my academic activities in the University in Satildeo

Paulo [Brazil] as a professor of Philosophy I started a

clinical activity in a Psychiatric Day-Hospital The first

time that I stepped foot in that institution by chance

was in the company of [Felix] Guattari himself whose

institutional supervision I had the task of translatinghellip I

cannot deny that Guattarirsquos theorizations regarding

schizophrenia the machinic unconscioustransversality in the institution his experience at La

Borde the way he smuggled fragments of his practice

into the philosophical and micropolitical domains has

inspired me enormously over all these yearsrdquo

While this confession comes more than half-way into

the book the influence of Guattari as well as other

notable theorists such as Michel Foucault GillesDeleuze Georges Bataille and Giorgio Agamben to




Page 2 of 4httpwwwpopmatterscomreviewcartography-of-exhaustion-nihilism-inside-out-by-peter-pal-pelbart

name a few is evident much earlier on If as has been said books by these thinkers

are meant to be guides to anti-fascist living then Pelbartrsquos book must be included in

the genre

Written in a conversational tone and replete with numerous personal anecdotes

Cartography of Exhaustion is probably not meant for a general audience since itpresupposes some familiarity with the thinkers listed above Yet his summations of

these theoristsrsquo key ideas which he will use as intellectual footholds are so clearly

articulated that they should put even intimidated readers at ease Indeed working my

way through the book I found some of the theoretical clouds that had been lingering

since graduate school start to dissipate and give way to clear bright skies if you will

This is a sunny revitalizing book despite its ostensible focus on exhaustion and

nihilism Anyone who has felt rejuvenated reading Nietzsche or experienced the

excitement that accompanies new pathways being forged in their lines of thinking after

having read Anti-Oedipus or A Thousand Plateaus will have an idea of what I mean

Unlike other recent maps of our contemporary milieu this one gives you hope

If for Albert Camus the question was how to live as neither victim nor executioner for

Pelbart it is how to live collectively without falling prey to ldquodespotic socialitarianismrdquo

ldquoHow to create a structure of life that is not an apparatus of life How to live together

and escape tyrannical gregariousness How to reject forms of living together that

suffocate singularityrdquo These are the same questions that his influences grappled with

but questions that still plague us because we are all exhausted by too much training

too much discipline too much stimulation We just cannot take any more in part

because we have taken to imposing it all upon ourselves

Key to understanding the modus operandi of biopolitics is the notion of ldquobioascesisrdquo

ldquoBioascesis is a care of the self but different from the ancients whose care was

directed at the good lifehellip Our care aims at the body itself its longevity health beauty

good shape scientific and aesthetic happinesshellip We shall not hesitate in calling it

even under the modulating conditions of contemporary coercion a fascist bodyrdquo

ldquoIf before we still imagined that we had spaces that were protected from the direct

interference of the powers (the body the unconscious subjectivity) and we had the

illusion of preserving in these areas some independence today our life appears entirely

subsumed within those mechanisms of modulating experience Thus even sex

language communication oneiric life even faith none of these still preserve any

exteriority in relation to the mechanisms of control and monitoring To summarize in a







everything becomes possible ldquoBy whom Of what In which direction We donrsquot know

It is a collective cartography unfinished moving from the inside out of nihilismhelliprdquo

Partly an homage to Deleuze and Guattari partly a personal memoir Pelbartrsquos

Cartography of Exhaustion is above all a superb introduction to an exhilarating thinker

through the lenses of philosophy madness art nihilism and exhaustion Hopefully thisbook will pave the way for future translations (John Laudenberger and Felix Rebolledo

Palazuelos have done a fine job here) of Pelbartrsquos works

Cartography of Exhaustion Nihilism Inside Out

Rating





name a few is evident much earlier on If as has been said books by these thinkers

are meant to be guides to anti-fascist living then Pelbartrsquos book must be included in

the genre

Written in a conversational tone and replete with numerous personal anecdotes

Cartography of Exhaustion is probably not meant for a general audience since itpresupposes some familiarity with the thinkers listed above Yet his summations of

these theoristsrsquo key ideas which he will use as intellectual footholds are so clearly

articulated that they should put even intimidated readers at ease Indeed working my

way through the book I found some of the theoretical clouds that had been lingering

since graduate school start to dissipate and give way to clear bright skies if you will

This is a sunny revitalizing book despite its ostensible focus on exhaustion and

nihilism Anyone who has felt rejuvenated reading Nietzsche or experienced the

excitement that accompanies new pathways being forged in their lines of thinking after

having read Anti-Oedipus or A Thousand Plateaus will have an idea of what I mean

Unlike other recent maps of our contemporary milieu this one gives you hope

If for Albert Camus the question was how to live as neither victim nor executioner for

Pelbart it is how to live collectively without falling prey to ldquodespotic socialitarianismrdquo

ldquoHow to create a structure of life that is not an apparatus of life How to live together

and escape tyrannical gregariousness How to reject forms of living together that

suffocate singularityrdquo These are the same questions that his influences grappled with

but questions that still plague us because we are all exhausted by too much training

too much discipline too much stimulation We just cannot take any more in part

because we have taken to imposing it all upon ourselves

Key to understanding the modus operandi of biopolitics is the notion of ldquobioascesisrdquo

ldquoBioascesis is a care of the self but different from the ancients whose care was

directed at the good lifehellip Our care aims at the body itself its longevity health beauty

good shape scientific and aesthetic happinesshellip We shall not hesitate in calling it

even under the modulating conditions of contemporary coercion a fascist bodyrdquo

ldquoIf before we still imagined that we had spaces that were protected from the direct

interference of the powers (the body the unconscious subjectivity) and we had the

illusion of preserving in these areas some independence today our life appears entirely

subsumed within those mechanisms of modulating experience Thus even sex

language communication oneiric life even faith none of these still preserve any

exteriority in relation to the mechanisms of control and monitoring To summarize in a














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Peter Pál Pelbart's 'Cartography of Exhaustion' Is Exhilarating |

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Transcript of Peter Pál Pelbart's 'Cartography of Exhaustion' Is Exhilarating |