Gilles Deleuze and the trajectory Bergson-Marx

The objective of this study is to develop criteria with which to distinguish between full variability and a kind of variability which is the product of deepening control. While the meaning of full variability can only be approximated by appealing to extra-linguistic experience, exploring these elaborations allows for a clearer understanding of a kind of variability which is definable. The means to accomplish this is to study Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of the smooth and the striated. Deleuze and Guattari conceive of the smooth as a space of full variability while the striated is construed as a space of abstract localization. In the context of contemporary capitalism however, Deleuze and Guattari feel the need to introduce a kind of smoothness which, although variable, is also a means of deepening control. I therefore posit two smooths which, although superficially similar, are conceptually distinct: one is logically exterior to the striated while the other emerges from the striated, as an extension of the striated. This second smooth retains the controlling and localizing functions of the striated, while becoming more fluid, processional and variable.; Deleuze and Guattari relate the distinction between the smooth and the striated to two main criteria: the difference between prioritizing the line and the point; and the theory of the two multiplicities. Each of these aspects of the smooth is traced through Deleuze's negotiation of Bergsonian and Marxian themes. By locating a trajectory 'Bergson-Marx' in Deleuze's oeuvre, it is possible to return to this encounter and reconstruct a different negotiation which acknowledges both the similarities between the two smooths and yet highlights their substantive differences.; The smoothness of contemporary capitalism can be distinguished from the smooth as initially outlined by Deleuze and Guattari. The smooth which emerges from striation is nothing other than the fulfillment of a tendency of the striated itself. Thus the variability which emerges from abstract localization and deepening control can and should be distinguished from a conception of pure or full variability.