Libidinal Economy of Theory and Theoretical Intensities II

Since the last entry I have, true to what I said, been extending the ‘Klossowski dossier’. This has included accumulating the bibliography and sporadically parachuting in to the key texts, which include Nietzsche et le cercle vicieux, La Monnaie vivante, but also critical essays by Deleuze and Foucault (also Blanchot and Lyotard), and the Klossowski-Deleuze correspondence. It is difficult to get hold of a French edition of La Monnaie vivante, which, despite its brevity is signalled as a major, unsurpassable work by Foucault and Deleuze alike. But I have downloaded a rtf version of it and have the translation, Living Currency, published by Bloomsbury in 2017. This also includes ‘Sade and Fourier’, a translation of a more or less contemporary (1970) essay in the psychoanalytic (4th group) review Topique, special issue on Fourier. The relevance for R13 is indirect, OK, but generally, feeding through Anti-Œdipe, R13 relies on a ‘theory of intensities’ which stems from Klossowski, via his readings of Nietzsche, but also Sade. This connects with another of my research tasks which is to write a chapter on Tel Quel, Sade and modernism. Klossowski’s ‘Sade ou le philosophe scélérat’ was originally a Tel Quel lecture from 1966. Plus Fourquet’s text in R14 is directly influenced and informed by Klossowskian theory, even if K is named only once; this revolves specifically around the term ‘suppôt’ as outlined above. See the dossier for more on this.

Coincidentally came across a chapter by Stuart Elden in M. Dillon and A. Neal (eds.), Foucault on Politics, Security, and War (Macmillan 2008) called ‘Strategies for Waging Peace: Foucault as collaborateur’ which has detailed discussion of R13. Have downloaded it from Stuart’s blog page and put it in the ‘Documents’ folder. It looks indispensable. It looks like it is included in Elden’s The Birth of Power.

Last week – borrowed JF Lyotard’s Économie libidinale (1974) from the Maughan library. It has no index, but the usual quick leafing turned up a reference to Fourquet’s R14, p. 123., which relates to the sense of guilt and ressentiment of the (Marxist) militant ideal. There is extensive discussion of Klossowski, including to La Monnaie vivante, pp. 17-115.