Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari — A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1980)
The second volume of Capitalism and Schizophrenia, following Anti-Oedipus. Structured as a rhizome — non-linear, without beginning or end, to be entered at any point — it develops a comprehensive philosophy of multiplicity against hierarchical, tree-like models of thought and organization. Key contributions include:
Rhizome vs. arborescence: The rhizome model (spreading horizontally, multiple entry points, no root or apex) vs. the arboreal model (single origin, branching hierarchy). Open protocols and protocol undergrounds are rhizomatic; institutions are arboreal.
Assemblage theory: Heterogeneous elements combining to produce emergent capacities — bodies, tools, affects, signs coassembling without reduction to any one organizing principle. Provides a framework for understanding how protocol undergrounds cohere without hierarchy.
The virtual and the actual: The virtual is real but not yet actualized — the field of potential that exists alongside the world of actual things. Central to OM’s Undercapital thesis, which treats the virtual as a materially real economic resource.
Smooth vs. striated space: Smooth space (open, vectorial, nomadic, directional) vs. striated space (closed, metric, bounded, gridded). Extitutional space is smooth; institutional enclosure is the striation of smooth space.
Haptic vision: Touch extended to sight — perceiving with reciprocity rather than from a distance. Contrasted with the mastering, divisive “optic” gaze.