According to Deleuze and Guattari (see a thousand plateaus, and other writings too), the dominant model of thought which we employ is what they term the arboreal model. By this, they mean, tree-like.
You’ll be familiar with this. Think of how we categorise using this model. It creates a hierarchy with layer after layer of subdivisions, branches or roots. But everything is connected back to the trunk, or up to the top level of the hierarchy. They say
The tree imposes the verb “to be”
It attempts to nail down exact definitions, to fix things in their place, to pigeon-hole them.
They challenge us to think instead using the rhizome as a model.
the fabric of the rhizome is the conjunction, “and….and….and…”
In a rhizome every element is connected to every other. There is no central trunk and no hierarchy. Think of a web
This is a non-linear model. You can’t fix things into pigeon-holes this way. It’s dynamic and flowing, without clear beginnings or endings.
I love this simple analogy. It’s one of my favourite parts of Deleuzean thinking. I find it liberating, even to the point of being dizzying. It’s got life and movement and creativity and flow. It helps us understand by considering difference rather than by categorisation.
Heroes Not Zombies 
I found your post very enticing! I have not read Deleuze a lot, but I have read Nietzsche all my life. Although I find the comparison quite interesting, I must confess that your two photos show a serious dilemma. For sure the first one, which is that of the tree, is much more beautiful. But perhaps I am still caught up in the arboreal way of seeing things. So much so that I wrote this essay on trees which might make you change your mind! 🙂
http://amelo14.wordpress.com/2005/07/15/reflections-on-trees-deep-ecology-and-poetry/
Andrés
Great post. I’ve been thinking about this model in relation to current political discussion. Energy, pollution, health, war, diplomacy, economy are all being discussed as separate issues, but in fact they are inter-related, with many connections.
I have been wanting to write about this, and your post has given me motivation. Thanks.
amelo14, thank you for this and thank you for your link – I enjoyed it – but, please let me be clear – this is NOT an attack on trees! I love trees! I totally agree that they are beautiful and this photo I took is one of my all time favourites. It’s the arboreal system of categorisation that Deleuze questions – in Deleuzian thinking we best understand a tree not by its taxonomy but by its connections, it growth, its embeddedness in the environment where it grew, we understand it best in its becoming, thinking back to the seed and where the seed came from and what the seed interacted with, the wind, the rain, the animals and so on to take root where it took root. I could go on! But I’m sure you get my point! Long live trees! But let’s not see them in isolation, let’s enjoy their full richness of becoming not being…..
Thank you justjimnc, I’m totally delighted that my post has inspired you. That’s one of my main reasons to blog – one of the hats I like to wear is that of the peripatetic enthuser!
Thanks for your reply. Still have some doubts, but will address them a bit later. Actually, if you enjoy photos of trees, you might just enjoy these I took:
http://www.bubbleshare.com/myalbum/77867
Saludos,
Andrés
thankyou Andres (how do I get an acute over the e from a standard keyboard?) – your photos are really beautiful (and that bubbleshare site looks interesting too)
Thank you for taking a peek! You get it by pressing alt-130 in the numerical key pad. Like so, é ! 🙂
Andrés
e´
how’s that Andre´s?
on the mac its e plus option key-e! Doesn’t look quite right though! The alt-130 didn’t work on my mac. I’ll keep trying!
[…] of my favourite philosophers is Deleuze. He emphasises not thinking of discrete objects. He rejects the typical “arboreal” system of thought where we set every organism into a […]
What a lovely, thought-provoking post, Bob, thank you!
I’ve had a look at your link to Deleuze and Guattari’s Multiplicity (love how it relates to the weavers of fate in Norse mythology!)
I really like this model of thought … will have to read some more, thank you for the introduction!
:o)
Thank you Dianne.
Deleuze is sure not an easy read, but I think his concepts were spot on for the emerging science of complexity
[…] GIles Deleuze, at the time, and somehow this “CAS” concept fell right into place with Deleuze’s philosophy of rhizomes and of becoming…..so much so that in 2007, when I started this blog, I chose the subtitle […]
[…] with my blog byline of “becoming not being” which I first encountered in the study of Deleuze’s […]