Something in the world forces us to think. This something is an object not of recognition but of a fundamental encounter.
Gilles DeleuzeRead
Language is not made to be believed but to be obeyed, and to compel obedience newspapers, news, proceed by redundancy, in that they tell us what we ‘must’ think, retain, expect, etc. language is neither informational nor communicational. It is not the communication of information but something quite different: the transmission of order-words, either from one statement to another or within each statement, insofar as each statement accomplishes an act and the act is accomplished in the statement
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that language serves to enforce authority and compliance rather than simply convey information.
Gilles Deleuze argues that language is not merely a tool for communication or conveying information; instead, it functions primarily to command and dictate behavior. He posits that newspapers and news perpetuate this by instilling a sense of obligation on readers regarding what to think or expect, emphasizing that the essence of language lies in its power to convey orders and shape actions, rather than merely sharing knowledge.
Themes
LanguageObedienceCommunicationPowerAuthority
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about media influence at a journalism conference.
More from Gilles Deleuze
All quotes →Intuition is neither a feeling, an inspiration nor a disorderly sympathy but a fully developed method.
Gilles DeleuzeRead
Let us create extraordinary words, on condition that they be put to the most ordinary use and that the entity they designate be made to exist in the same way as the most common object.
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Forming grammatically correct sentences is for the normal individual the prerequisite for any submission to social laws. No one is supposed to be ignorant of grammaticality; those who are belong in special institutions. The unity of language is fundamentally political.
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Art is not communicative, art is not reflexive. Art, science, philosophy are neither contemplative, neither reflexive, nor communicative. They are creative, that's all.
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To affirm is not to bear, carry, or harness oneself to that which exists, but on the contrary to unburden, unharness, and set free that which lives.
Gilles DeleuzeRead
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