Now, although Deleuze and Guattari often sing the praises of _becoming_, giving rise to the impression that it is an intrinsically desirable state of being, it is noteworthy that when they look for a text that exemplifies it as an experience, they reach for Lovecraft. And here I'm quoting them: > in one of his masterpieces, H. P. Lovecraft recounts the story of Randalf Carter, who feels his "self reel and who experiences a fear worse than that of annihilation: "Carters of forms both human and non-human, vertebrate and invertebrate, conscious and mindless, animal and vegetable. And more, there were Carters having nothing in common with earthly life, but moving outrageously amidst backgrounds of other planets and systems and galaxies and cosmic continua. .. . Merging with nothingness is peaceful oblivion, but to be aware of existence and yet to know that one is no longer a definite being distinguished from other beings," nor from all the becomings running through us, "that is the nameless summit of agony and dread." - Ian Buchanan, "What is Affect"