CRITICAL CARTOGRAPHY a repository for counter-mapping
Gilles Deleuze — Desert Islands Excerpt
1953-1974
“Geographers say there are two kinds of islands. This is valuable information for
the imagination because it confirms what the imagination already knew. Nor
is it the only case where science makes mythology more concrete, and mythol-
ogy makes science more vivid. Continental islands are accidental, derived
islands. They are separated from a continent, born of disarticulation, erosion,
fracture; they survive the absorption of what once contained them. Oceanic
islands are originary, essential islands. Some are formed from coral reefs and
display a genuine organism. Others emerge from underwater eruptions, bring-
ing to the light of day a movement from the lowest depths. Some rise slowly;
some disappear and then return, leaving us no time to annex them. These two
kinds of islands, continental and originary, reveal a profound opposition
between ocean and land. Continental islands serve as a reminder that the sea is
on top of the earth, taking advantage of the slightest sagging in the highest
structures; oceanic islands, that the earth is still there, under the sea, gathering
its strength to punch through to the surface. We can assume that these elements are in constant strife, displaying a repulsion for one another. In this we
find nothing to reassure us. Also, that an island is deserted must appear philosophically normal to us. Humans cannot live, nor live in security, unless they
assume that the active struggle between earth and water is over, or at least con-
tained. People like to call these two elements mother and father, assigning
them gender roles according to the whim of their fancy. They must somehow
persuade themselves that a struggle of this kind does not exist, or that it has
somehow ended. In one way or another, the very existence of islands is the
negation of this point of view, of this effort, this conviction. That England is
populated will always come as a surprise; humans can live on an island only
by forgetting what an island represents. Islands are either from before or for
after humankind.”