The affect of writing to it: A collaborative response to encountering Deleuze for the first time

This chapter presents the refrains of collaborative writing in response to a workshop presented by Professor Jonathan Wyatt (Edinburgh University) on the ideas and writings of Deleuze and Guattari at the University of Queensland’s DRAW (Departing Radically in Academic Writing) retreat held on Minjerribah in December 2020. In this piece, we share our encounter with the words, language and theories of Deleuze and Guattari as calls and responses in between twos and aim to share the ‘affect’ of ‘writing to it’. For many of us, this was our first encounter with the post-structuralist duo and, rather than enter into discussion about their work per se, we share here the ‘affect’ of listening to Jonathan speak about Deleuze and Guattari and the affect his words about them had on each and every one ‘between us’. In doing so, we hope our collection of words stammering in the storm shows that there are creative and critical ways of becoming academic writer in collaboration, and that these, in and of themselves, may be the best hope we have of departing radically in our work to change the world.