Ontology of Avulsion: Posthuman Freedom and Accidental Becoming Page: 89
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Becoming-imperceptible is a sort of transcendence that plunges us into the impossible,
the unheard-of: an affirmative present. This is what Deleuze calls 'an event' - or the
eruption of the actualization of a sustainable future.181
This quote highlights the relevance of becoming-imperceptible for the process of avulsion.
Avulsion is, along with all material becoming, a creatio-amnesiac process. The molecular
constituents of the denegated body find themselves in the process of becoming-imperceptible.
Becoming-imperceptible is not the same as becoming-negated, nor is it a negative force. For
Braidotti, becoming-imperceptible is a moment of utmost affirmation, it is an affirmative
present. Bodies break apart and are plunged into the virtual to be released for the vast array of
possibility in its very moment of coming undone. In the language of avulsion, the process of
radical disentanglement, to the point of becoming-imperceptible, entails the possibility for
radical becoming. In the creatio-amnesiac process, it is the moment that bodies succumb to the
overwhelming tensions that are pressing in upon them and begin to crack up. Although
Braidotti's work focuses on sustainability, it is not concerned with the persistence of a body
simply for the sake of persisting. Flows of desire are powerful, they are violent and disruptive.
They relentlessly break bodies down into a state of imperceptibility as they rush forward in
endless becoming.
One can see Edna Pontellier's'82 situation as one of transposition, in Braidotti's sense of
the word. Through the forces of tension in an oppressive society, Edna's awakening is disruptive
to the habits of her identity. She begins to break with her past, along with the expectations that
others expect her to conform to. She crashes through the world on a wave of intensity and
affirmation; her story is a vivid description of transforming the negative forces of ressentiment
into an affirmation of life itself. She loses herself to the potency of life and becomes, against an89
181 Braidotti, Transpositions, 260.
182 Chopin, The Awakening.
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Grossman, Jacob Wayne. Ontology of Avulsion: Posthuman Freedom and Accidental Becoming, dissertation, December 2021; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1873811/m1/95/?rotate=270: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .