Last class when discussing Landow, Deleuze and Guattari my
group was posed with a question along the lines of who is the interpreter of
the text and ultimately who really determines what a text is about. Now
obviously a complex question that does not really have a correct answer, but we
concluded that Landow believes the reader or audience to be the determining
factor. He states that a hyper text has no center, “although this absence of a
center can create problems for the reader and the writer, it also means that
anyone who uses hypertext makes his or her own interests the de facto
organizing (or center) for the investigation at the moment” (Landow 37). This
notion makes sense to us as daily users of the Internet, we have the abilities
to navigate really anywhere we want. In or discussion our group equated Deleuze
and Guattari’s plateau to the space in which the reader can operate or explore.
Now this began to complicate things for me as I explored deeper, especially
trying figure out what a rhizome is.
One of
the first things I did was google the word “rhizome,” expecting a page full of
rhetorical theory but instead there was only pictures of plants. I checked the
spelling, it was correct and then I saw this diagram.
This is exactly what Deleuze and Guattari are talking about.
They propose all texts are interpreted on a “plane of consistency,” which is
essentially the plateau but where do the rhizomes fit in? (Deleuze, Guattari 9)”We
call a plateau any multiplicity connected to other multiplicities by
superficial underground stems in such a way as to form or extend a rhizome”
(Deleuze, Guattari 22). Thus,
while navigating the plateau of a text, each obstacle or interaction one faces
is interconnected by the underground rhizome stems.
Now Landow’s idea that the reader creates his own center of
a text seems limited. Deleuze and Guattari describe the center of a plateau
almost as a volcano, seeping out and creating around it (9). I believe the
center of interpretation has to be considered the rhizome because it controls
the actions of the reader, while giving the reader the idea that they are
playing on an infinite plane.
Peter, I would agree with most of the conclusions you guys reached. I do believe that the reader is ultimately the center of the text. Also, the plateaus can definitely be seen as points that connect the rhizomes roots to one another. I don't think the center as Landow sees it is a limited concept because he claims that hypertext is an "infinitely recenterable system" (36). Also, I don't know if Landow's center can be combined into Deleuze/Guattari's rhizome because I feel like they claim that the rhizome doesn't really have a center it sort of has multiple points that all connect to one another. I could be wrong on that but overall great blog post, I think you have room to explore this a little more.
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