A Communist Theory of Writing: Virno, Lyotard, and a Rewriting of the General Intellect

Abstract

This chapter rewrites the general intellect in order to formulate a communist theory of writing. Such a theory is not concerned with the content of writing, but rather the character of the act of rewriting, one that is patient and occurs along a general line between intellect and stupidity, speech and silence, and knowledge and thought. This theory emerges from several rewritings of the general intellect. The chapter begins with Jean-François Lyotard’s theory of rewriting—which distinguishes between rewriting as remembering and rewriting as working through—and introduces the role of digital technologies in rewriting. I then turn to Virno’s rewriting of the general intellect, which expands the concept beyond determinate capabilities and knowledges, yet at the same time compresses it into a fundamental and linguistic truth that lacks an antagonism to capital. In the remainder of the chapter, I rewrite the general intellect again, returning it to its indeterminacy by positing a general and postdigital (squiggly) line between intellect and its other.