{"id":750,"date":"2022-07-31T11:05:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-31T03:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caarchives.org\/?p=750"},"modified":"2022-07-31T16:08:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-31T08:08:18","slug":"on-becoming-molecular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caarchives.org\/on-becoming-molecular\/","title":{"rendered":"On Becoming-Molecular: Vaccines, Autoimmunity, and Negotiation | Chung-Hsiung Lai"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\u3010<\/strong>by<\/em> Chung-Hsiung Lai<\/strong>, June 2022\u3011<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Re-thinking \u201cBecoming-Molecular\u201d in a Post-pandemic Time<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Living in a post-pandemic time means living in \u201cthe time out of joint\u201d(to borrow the phrase from Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet<\/em>). Never in the past have humans worldwide been locked down in their houses at the same time. Never in the past have humans worldwide developed a bunker mentality as a result of the same attack. Never in the past have humans worldwide lived in a time out of joint in fear of the same enemy. Doubtlessly, the coronavirus has dramatically changed the world in the form of a global crisis. All reflections, predictions and warnings in a post-pandemic time highlight an urgent call for a new normal<\/em> to face an \u201cout-of-joint\u201d world. We have gradually realized that what cannot be cured<\/em> in life must be endured<\/em>. For instance, the policy of stopping the spread of viruses<\/em> has gradually shifted to co-existing with viruses<\/em> in Asia. I cannot help but re-think Deleuze and Guattari\u2019s idea of \u201cbecoming-molecular,\u201d not only for its philosophical meaning and ethico-political functions but also, more importantly, for its deconstructive aporia. In this article, after summarizing the three dimensions of becoming-molecular in the plane of immanence, I want to explore the aporia of becoming-molecular in the relation between humans and viruses. Then, I examine a deconstructive negotiation that urges us to engage this aporia regarding vaccination and autoimmunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deleuze and Guattari remind us that \u201c[w]e form a rhizome with our viruses, or rather our viruses cause us to form a rhizome with other animals\u201d (A Thousand Plateaus<\/em> 10). Being a \u201crhizomatic machine,\u201d the human body owns a molecular-genetic structure and different operating systems. Nomadic viruses transfer genetic material to their host cells, and then they evolve differently in different species. Human beings, Karen Barad also points out, are always-already in the dynamic process of being \u201centangled\u201d and \u201cintra-acted\u201d with all non-human beings or things. She thus argues that the whole world does not consist of individual \u201csubjects\u201d and \u201cobjects\u201d but of \u201cmaterial-discursive phenomena\u201d of \u201cworld\u2019s becoming\u201d (Meeting <\/em>91). From a new materialist view, germs, viruses, bacteria, and fungi have their modes of being, like that of human beings. Viruses have actively shaped human evolution. Accordingly, how could evolutionary movements of the eco-assemblages not be \u201centangled\u201d between human and non-human beings and between host cells and viruses? If so, all living beings (the selves) are bound to \u201cintra-acted\u201d to their others whether they like it or not. In this eco-process of becoming-molecular, we must \u201c[a]lways look for the molecular, or even submolecular, the particle with which we are allied. We evolve and die more from our polymorphous and rhizomatic flus than from hereditary diseases, or diseases that have their own line of descent\u201d (A Thousand Plateaus<\/em> 11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In brief, \u201cbecoming-molecular\u201d is a philosophical concept of immanence. As such, its scope is three-fold: politics, ethics, and vitality. First, the politics of becoming-molecular: Deleuze and Guattari make a distinction between \u201cmolar\u201d (indicating hierarchy, stratification, and rigid subjectivity) and \u201cmolecular\u201d (unstable, deterritorialized, and nomadic movement). Hence, \u201coedipalization\u201d is constructed along molar lines, while \u201cschizoanalysis\u201d is constructed along molecular lines. The concepts of \u201cmolar\u201d and \u201cmolecular\u201d are often applied to political bodies: the former belongs to the state affiliated with a governing apparatus, while the latter belongs to micro-entities as the state\u2019s counterparts. Molecularization thus signifies a powerful deterritorialized resistance to territorialized molarization concerning politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, the ethics of becoming-molecular: admittedly, \u201cthere is<\/em> a deeply ethico-normative dimension to Deleuzo-Guattarain philosophy but it has tended to be ignored, overlooked, downplayed, and misunderstood\u201d (Jun and Smith 2). We can say that becoming-other is a phenomenon of becoming-molecular, which is the fundamental mode of becoming<\/em>. In What is Philosophy<\/em>, Deleuze and Guattari explain that \u201cbecoming\u201d is \u201cthe action by which something or someone continues to become other (while continuing to be what it is)\u201d (177). Moreover, there are two intersecting dimensions of becoming as a phenomenon of double-becoming<\/em>: one is \u201cconceptual becoming,\u201d which \u201cis heterogeneity grasped in an absolute\u201d (in \u201cThe Virtual Possible\u201d), while the other is \u201csensory becoming,\u201d which \u201cis otherness caught in a matter of expression\u201d (177) (from \u201cThe-Virtual-Real\u201d to \u201cThe-Actual-Real\u201d and from \u201cThe-Actual-Real\u201d to \u201cThe-Actual-Possible\u201d) in the plane of immanence (see Figure 1). Accordingly, these two thinkers introduce a whole series of well-known variations of \u201csensory becoming,\u201d such as becoming-animal, becoming-children, becoming-minority, and becoming-women. Becoming-molecular thus signifies the continuous and dynamic process of becoming-other<\/em> as a mode of being-with-others<\/em> in the plane of immanence. The ethic of becoming-molecular with others<\/em> lays a cornerstone of Deleuze and Guattari\u2019s ethics of immanence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n