Becoming the Apocalypse: Global Climate Change and a Tragic Swerve in Deleuze's Logic of Sense

In this article, I argue that the dominant approaches to climate change impede a meaningful set of political interventions that might be galvanised in the face of destructive transformations in the climate. If one overemphasises the possibility of unexpected turns of events, the ability to build and pursue a political agenda is undermined. If, however, one overemphasises humanity's mastery over the course of events, deliberate interventions will falter when the unexpected occurs. Using Lewis Carroll to illustrate the former and Sophocles’ depiction of Theban sovereigns to illustrate the latter, I propose a Deleuzian-inspired middle ground: thinking through climate change as a Deleuzian ‘event’ described in The Logic of Sense provides a novel set of strategies for becoming alongside the changing climate. As resources, I call on both Sophocles and Lucretius to provide an account of the world that is marked by predictable events and occasional swerves in the normal course of things. Ultimately, I argue Deleuze's Event captures creative potentiality but insists on a degree of predictability and agentic influence. By drawing on the Event, the goal is to mitigate the dangers involved with the masterful agent in Oedipus as well as the nihilism that results from being at the whim of the fates – both of which preclude meaningful action in the face of climate change. Rather than ignoring, denying, or controlling the outcome of widespread transformation, I propose creatively participating in the metamorphosis.