In post-earthquake Nepal,
people have many ideas on how to deal with unbearable
trauma, but mostly these ideas arise out of desperation and the need
for a quick solution. And then there is now also more anger towards
that nature from where the earthquake arose, an anger which could be
problematic as it leads to more deforestation, poaching and pollution
in Nepal...that is why the progressive development of Deleuze and
Guattari's body-without-organs (BwO) is the most adequate response to
the trauma of the earthquake: the BwO entails the removal of skin so
as not to feel the sensations of the quakes, the removal of eyes so
that the quakes are not visible...the losing of one's physical bodily
organs linking one's self to the quake. The BwO could be a direct
result of the trauma (“I lost sight in my eye-organ because of
seeing too much of the earthquake”), an actual medical operation to
remove the eye/skin, or it could be an intense imagined state, in any
case where the skin and other organs that sense and respond to the
earthquake cease to be a part of the functioning body, becoming
instead a non-functioning mediation between nature and the BwO.
As everyone is running
around in panic during the earthquake, the BwO remains steady and
still, doing productive activities. As a careful tactician, the BwO
channels all its productive energy/labor away from the organ which it
sees as problematic: the eyes may be inactive/removed, for instance,
but the ears can be more active than before. In this way, a clutter
of organs is reduced to a few highly productive ones, and production
does not cease even during and after an earthquake. In a world used
to production from all available bodily organs, the production from a
select few organs yields novel objects not encountered before, and in
this regard the BwO's productivity works as a rebellion against
full-bodied capitalist industrial production.
When one sheds one's
skin, there is no need to enact a kind of violent change on nature to
deal with the trauma of the earthquake; there is no angry response
turned towards nature, because the earthquake is not felt, at least
not in its full severity. On the other hand, there is no real change
to the BwO either, because the skin is only a mediator between the
BwO and nature; the skin does not
belong to BwO or to nature. And hence the skin can be “shed”
to curb the response of the conscious mind and body to the
earthquake. The earthquake occurs and there is harm enacted upon the
BwO, but, it is not registered, and thus the BwO continues to become
productive, it continues to live with the earthquake but without
reliance for its productivity on such whims of nature.
The BwO does not feel
the sensations of harm to the body so as not to feel self-centered
and self-defensive when it comes to the earthquake. Due to this
selflessness, the BwO could have a positive social/altruistic
function, very helpful in the post-earthquake situation. Also, for
the BwO there is no sentimental attachment to the removed organs of
the body, which is indeed a big feat given the protective mentality
with which a person is characterized when it comes to the body's
protection.
When the BwO becomes
productive during an
earthquake, it becomes admired for its bravery and for its
work-ethic, and so it becomes a historical/heroic object, its
“body-ness” not realized by those who celebrate it. But the BwO
is still a living body, and death may occur to such a body at any
time, for the BwO's survivalist tendency is weakened by the loss of
organs. Yet there is still definitely a kind of contentment to
the body's death, because nature has not been harmed, the earth
remains safe for more years to come.
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