38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
consider it a gift, May 16, 2001
anti-oedipus is one bear of a book. i have wrestled with it numerous times, only to repeatedly concede defeat somewhere around page one fifty. it was about then that i would realize i was in over my head, my knowledge of lacan and klein (and even freud to some extent) too narrow to be able to grasp its deeper significance. for one must have a sound knowledge of psychoanalysis to understand why the oedipus is something that merits a good fight. nevertheless, this book continued to fascinate, with its staggering range of knowledge and peculiar prose style calling me back time and again over the past few years. i could not leave a bookstore without passing a few moments away in the philosophy section, in hopes of finding something to assist in my study. i made an attempt with brian massumi's "a user's guide," but was left a little disappointed, finding it to be almost as difficult as anti-oedipus itself. thankfully, eugene holland's "an introduction" has proved a perfect fit. he has performed a great service to readers such as myself (i know that you're out there, somewhere) by walking one through step by step, with brief interludes explicating those thinkers who influenced the writing of anti-oedipus (such as spinoza and bataille), and illustrating each of it key concepts in relation to the revolutionary praxis it demands. he is the consumate teacher here, demanding but patient. for these are difficult ideas for the uninitiated, but with persistance this book should open up the thinking of deleuze and guatarri for any thoughtful reader. now that i have read it, i am looking forward to giving massumi's book another try, as well as another go around with the bear itself.
thank you mr. holland for this great gift.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
delivers what it promises, March 9, 2004
I tried unsuccessfully to read Anti-Oedipus last year. I was baffled and felt completley out of my depth. About a month ago I decided to start reading "towards" this text again, based on the unfamiliar references from my last attempt. So, I have read some secondary liturature on Freud, reread Neitzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, brushed up on Marx and Foucault, and am about to start Dor's introduction to Lacan. Also, I am simultaineously reading this book, and Massumi's users guide. This process is working well for me, and I am begining to understand? whats going on in Anti-Oedipus. Hollands book is challenging, but it does provide a strong foundation to walk across while approaching the primary text. One of the best introductions I have come across.
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book saved my life..., December 30, 2005
...well not really, but it did help make the hours and hours and hours I spent reading Anti-Oedipus a much more fullfilling, meaningful experience, and for that, I am extremely grateful.
Listen, swallow your pride, even if you do make it all the way through Anti-Oedipus without any help, you are in all likelyhood doing yourself a disservice; there are so many elements at work, that unless you are a genius, and read multitudes of books, you are a not going to get everything you could out of the book.
For instance, have you read Difference and Repeition by Guattari? How about Masochism: An Interpretation of Coldness and Cruelty also by Guattari? Because the themes and points made in those books are used in Anti-Oedipus, and, as the author Eugene W. Holland says, it is taken for granted you already know that stuff.
I read a lot to prepare for Anti-Oedipus, but it is practically impossible to have read and comprehended everything that is used by Deleuze and Guattari. For instance you must know Freud cold (especially Oedipus, the death instinct, and stuff on the drives), Lacan, the anti psychiatrists like R.D. Laing, you must know Bataille, you must have read Schreber "Memoirs of my Nervous Illness", Willhelm Reich (such books as The Function of the Orgasm, and The Mass Psychology of Fascism), Herbert Marcuse (such as One Dimensional Man, and Eros and Civilization), you should have read Levi Strauss, I would recommend reading Gad Horowitz's Repression: Basic and Surplus Repression in Psychoanalytic Theory: Freud, Reich, Marcuse, you should also be very aware of the themes of post structuralism, such as the de-centered subject, and you must know Marx, I mean really know Marx (if you consider yourself a Marxist, this book is a treat), plus innumerable other books and texts and poets and philosophers.
I just had to admit, although I have read all of what I listed about, I was still not prepared for Anti-Oedipus (though I certainly knew enough to make Anti-Oedipus a real thrill once I got it), which occured somewhere around page 160.
This book brings it all together, in clear exposition, and it is like a breath of fresh air, my friends. It is no replacement for reading the actual book, but it is a necessary supplement. If you finish the chapters in Anti-Oedipus on the Connective Synthesis of Production, the Disjunctive Synthesis of Recording, and the Conjunctive Synthesis of Cunsumption-consummation and still are not so dure what the **** they are talking about, stop right there, cause you need to read this book. It will all be so much clearer afterwards.
I would recommend that you read as much of Anti-Oedipus as you can get through, if you get through the whole thing right off the bat, Bravo! But then get this book and consume it. Then, finish up the book, or just reflect, and you efforts will be greatly rewarded.
I am very thankful to Mr. Holland, and if I weren't an atheist, I'd say, GOD BLESS YOU SIR! I salute you and thank you for making my journey that much more of a victory...
...cause Anti-Oedipus is a real trip, but like the Tibetans after death, you need your guide and guide book (Like the Book of the Dead), and you now have it, to help make sure you don't get lost in the light (because it is so very bright).
Anti-Oedipus is a guide book to non fascist living. In these times, it is greatly needed. Get help, NOW! And then get some Schizoanalysis...
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