Abstract: Roussel’s machines helped Deleuze. Initially, Foucault, Butor, and Carrouges served him as intercessors. But Deleuze understood that the “procedure” was not enough to explain them. He experimented with them a little himself to produce desire and to complexify becomings (man, animal, machine). After Deleuze, Roussel and his machines should function like a “vaste plaisanterie” (a huge joke) that drives the great social machine to flight.
