The Becoming (Wo)Man Who Fell to Earth

This chapter speculates on the Thomas Jerome Newton character in Roeg’s film, The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), as reporting a creative substrate to identity. The historically oppressive figuration of the film’s alien appears to forestall agency and although Deleuze’s notion of ‘becoming’ (1987) is considered, this appears to be constrained by the same androcentric reason. Dissatisfied with a Deleuzean remedy, I turn to the scientific framework of the film, upset the film’s narrative and grammar, and deploy untimely metaphors from Quantum Theory. A post-Newtonian figuration of Newton is proposed, one who inhabits hiatus and benefits from falling without end.

• Organisation