Flusser reading, "Vampyroteuthis infernalis"

1. Summary of key points



I'm reminded of M-P in the beginning of this piece. It begins with a quote, "Nothing that is human is alien to me," and then jumps into observations of differences. While Flusser is careful to establish a relationship in which we feel reciprocated in our observations of the vampyre squid (he sees us too), he definitely doesn't begin by emphasizing our similarities. 
 
"Both of us live separated by an abyss. The atmospheric pressure that he inhabits would crush us, and the air we breathe would suffocate him."

Right after this he goes on to emphasize (darkly) our similarities (the differences must have been his initial hook), and also hints at ways in which the vampyre squid might definitely be cooler than humans? I get the impression he thinks they're on a whole nother playing field while we're still warming up. Sure enough...

"We are both, Vampyroteuthis and humans, eucoelomates. They are the ones that matter, if we want to re-encounter what is common to both of us." And for the record, this is the oldest known organism in Bilateria, and the "first" with a coelem that is still around today (according to wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernanimalcula)

We are both eucoelomates (exo, meso, endoderm, and a coelem distinguishing head from anus) which he beautifully illustrates, "The eucoelomates are animals that distinguish themselves from the world, that orient themselves in the world, that act  upon the world, and that absorb it."

 Why did he distinguish a 3rd axis? "For us Bilateria the world is bilaterally symmetrical: there either “is” or “is not”, and the third is excluded. The dialectic of the worm."

As Bataille might snarkily rebuke, we are beings with animal fragility, it is a sign of our excess. "Vampyroteuthes and men are organisms, beings with undeniable animal dignity."

Why were they 'heading towards man'? That sounds like a bad evolutionary biologist, someone oughta set this man straight..."Thus the eucoelomates, who were heading towards man, had a curious moment of hesitation. They sought to rid themselves of their bilateral nature" I also don't understand how the echinoderms "failed" to achieve anything, considering they aren't extinct yet.

For the record, every biologist I've ever met would probably be frothing at the mouth by now...this is like some serious transgression! " There is no doubt that this development represents life’s main  advance towards “intelligence”, to the super-evolved nervous system."



 Otherwise, I like his premise, which is to explore man through the differences and similarities in these elusive, related squid..



3. Words I learned:
chauvinistic: Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one's own gender, group, or kind 

Gilles Deleuze, "Immanence, A Life" from Pure Immanence.

1. Summarize key points
Okay, I wrote this already but it got erased when my computer crashed..oh well. The point is, I wrote about this reading before, and was possessed with a confusion that kept me reading and rereading it. I parsed words out, wrote definitions, drew on other readings and class discussions, tried to make sense of it because no other reading has gripped my mind and evaded my mental capacity so fiercely yet. But finally words are clicking into place and comprehension dawns. A unique feeling, when through your own neurons you have some epiphany and feel in the very fabric of your perception that this is it. You've got it. So, here are the epiphanies of understanding I have to share...

First, the plane of immanence is the most basic form of everything. It precludes a definition; we can no more put definition to it via subject and object than we can walk on our noses. It is, simply and frustratingly. The only time that the phrase, "it just is!" actually applies with truth. Everything comes from it, and it finds meaning from none of those things. Wild!

The transcendental field is a little different. Consciousness is a part of it, traverses it, is immanent within it. We can't define it with consciousness, there is again no subject or object, but it is at least a state of existence that is within immanence. Existence prior to revelations. Prior to experience in the sense of perception or sensation, an existence of pure being and everything. It is radical immanence*, I think, without any singularities*. As Deleuze says, "When the subject or the...

A LIFE is a consciousness immanent in all other life, it isn't being the sense of existing as an entity or process, but it does exist. Radical immanence with singularities.

A transcendental field precludes a plane of immanence, which exists in between moments as a singularity of life, and coincides with subject and object to form an actualization, the process of individuation.

transcendental field: a pure immanent consciousness (prior to self-consciousness) lacking object, self, direction, and time. It is the opposite of transcendence; it is the most fundamental basis of existence.

transcendent: being above and independent of the material universe. Preeminent or supreme. What happens when we transcend the transcendental field?

Consciousness transcends from the transcendental field only when reflected on a subject that informs an object.

But because there is consciousness, the consciousness is immanent inside the transcendental field.

Immanence: a life, and nothing else.


2. Develop an argument

We can work backwards: A LIFE is defined by a plane of immanence, and a plane of immanence defines the transcendental field.

A LIFE existing between moments is immanent, but is still a singularity that is existing between life and death. When the possibility of there being existence between moments, we find the singularity, the defining thing of life that makes us all unique even.

A transcendental field is a pre-experienced form of being, a consciousness prior to sensation, prior to the break between living and experiencing the living (Merleau-Ponty's idea of perspective). It's a transcendental empiricism that goes beyond the break that is experiencing sensation. Removed from any revelation. Consciousness moves along the transcendental field at the same speed as the field, and is only produced when the subject and object transcend the field at the same moment in time and space.

The transcendental field has no awareness of itself, it would be pure immanence if we didn't have consciousness arising from it. A plane of immanence is only immanent when it isn't related to anything other than itself.

The transcendental field is defined by a plane of immanence, and immanence is defined by a life (similar to the Buddhist concept of nirvana, it seems). When the person's consciousness goes outside of his own sense of self and experience, it touches something more basic found in everything. We go from being an individual to being a singularity, a part of life that experiences with the rest of life rather than experiencing all of the things that make us unique and alone.

Singularities of a life are actualized into individuations in the subjects and objects, but an immanent life spends time between moments,
A singular life, immanent to the things around it, becomes individualized when the events around it are actualized in objects and subjects (bringing it out of the immanent plane).

2. In reflection of class concepts...

3. Words I learned:
empiricism: the view that experience of the senses is the only form of knowledge
haecceity: the essence that makes something itself and nothing else
beatitude: extreme blessedness or happiness