The Phenomenal Slavoj Zizek

[josef k.]

Slavoj Zizek has been around and about lately; reviewing Peter Hallward's book Damming the Flood in the New Statesman, pontificating on Tibet, and then Radovan Karazdic's poetry in the LRB, answering a Q+A in the Guardian, and, of course, publishing a new book.

http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/08/haiti-aristide-lavalas

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n12/letters.html#letter5
(and see Rebecca French's Reply)
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n15/letters.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/09/slavoj.zizek

What do Dissensusers think of his work?

 

[Mr. Tea]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/09/slavoj.zizek

Hahaha, awesome:

Q. What does love feel like?

A. Like a great misfortune, a monstrous parasite, a permanent state of emergency that ruins all small pleasures.

 

[mistersloane]

He answered me back on myspace so he gets more credit in my book than Thom Yorke, Kode9 or Gus Van Sant, who never.

 

[vimothy]

 

[mos dan]

He answered me back on myspace so he gets more credit in my book than Thom Yorke, Kode9 or Gus Van Sant, who never.

he has a myspace? that's so freaking cool. i wish all my favourite writers had myspaces.

 

[fokse vektaire xeven]

An interesting and provocative thinker- though whenever i watch one of his lectures from the last couple of years everything about his delivery and mannerisms suggest he's nosed a half kilometre line of chong five seconds before he came on. it's really distracting. anyone else noticed that?

 

[vimothy]

Would explain a lot. But not everything. Perhaps he's mixing kenny in with his nosebag.

Brad DeLong is the same by the way...

 

[mistersloane]

he has a myspace? that's so freaking cool. i wish all my favourite writers had myspaces.

Innit? It was him as well cos he sent me his address so I could send him stuff, it's little things like that that make me really happy.

I think he's just totally ADD rather than on the toot, you see him in that documentary and he's hyper all the way through. Big brain + no attention span = cultural studies.

 

[fokse vektaire xeven]

I think he's just totally ADD rather than on the toot, you see him in that documentary and he's hyper all the way through. Big brain + no attention span = cultural studies.

haha. yeah probably so... i dunno though...it's the constant sniffling and playing around with his face, combined with a seemingly increasing inability to stay on topic. As with his lecture, "Cocaine, a New Opium for the Masses"

http://www.lacan.com/zizekecologyvideo.html

I find myself in agreement with a lot of what he says anyway, even the more fanciful stuff.

 

[mistersloane]

haha. yeah probably so... i dunno though...it's the constant sniffling and playing around with his face, combined with a seemingly increasing inability to stay on topic. As with his lecture, "Cocaine, a New Opium for the Masses"

http://www.lacan.com/zizekecologyvideo.html

I find myself in agreement with a lot of what he says anyway, even the more fanciful stuff.

lol. the idea of zizek on crack fills me with total, absolute fear.

 

[3 Body No Problem]

lol. the idea of zizek on crack fills me with total, absolute fear.

Zizek a cokehead? Lot's of things make sense under that hypothesis! Speaking of Lacanians, the Mirror Stage seems to have been confirmed in Magpies. Make of this what you will!

 

[Mr. Tea]

Heh, I thought the url said 'zizekology', which could presumably be a whole field of study in itself.

http://www.lacan.com/zizekecologyvideo.html

Also, why the painting of a half-naked woman in the background? ("Why not?", I guess...)

 

[fokse vektaire xeven]

Also, why the painting of a half-naked woman in the background?

...bleeding from the pants. also distracting. i'm sure slavoj fucked the woman who gave the introduction straight afterwards as well. she is definitely hot for it. sorry this is devolving into a very unintellectual consideration of zizek's cultural contributions...back on topic i do like the fact he's a "messy" thinker, tangential and not afraid to contradict himself. easy meat for his detractors of course but i find it engaging. i also prefer hearing him speak to reading the books, a good orator with such a great voice and that way there's less of the crit theory academic jargon to struggle through

 

[swears]

i do like the fact he's a "messy" thinker, tangential and not afraid to contradict himself. easy meat for his detractors of course but i find it engaging.

Yeah, I found a lot of the ideas interesting, like how modern western countries can be "liberal" but still shit on the poor and excluded, or how resistance can be packaged and sold, becoming part of the problem. Although... he spoke as if he was working towards a central point, but I couldn't really discern one, he didn't even talk about ecology for that long.

I was expecting him to mention how as consumers, we are all encouraged to do things to conserve energy and resources like recycling or using more efficient light bulbs or reusing plastic bags, yadda, yadda... Which is all pissing in the wind because the only way large-scale enviromental damage can be stopped is by international cooperation on regulation of carbon emissions, which is never going to happen because governments are shit-scared of tanking their economies in a competitive global market.

 

[fokse vektaire xeven]

he spoke as if he was working towards a central point, but I couldn't really discern one, he didn't even talk about ecology for that long.

combined with a seemingly increasing inability to stay on topic

Zizek a cokehead?

the ecofad is a somewhat pernicious one as it gifts people an incredible sense of self satisfaction. i know people who feel genuinely salvationary and oppositional because they ride a bike and grew a turnip in their window box once. it is a pacifier of sorts and to that degree i take his point.

would anyone agree with his formulation that capitalism's tipping point will come when the excluded form a critical mass and initiate a "low level civil war"? early manifestations being recent terrorist attacks

meanwhile over in the music forum....

zizek... put a donk on it

 

[Mr. Tea]

i know people who feel genuinely salvationary and oppositional because they ride a bike and grew a turnip in their window box once. it is a pacifier of sorts and to that degree i take his point.

The thing about all this DIY eco-friendly stuff like energy-efficient bulbs, cycling, recycling and all the rest of it is that it actually would make a pretty big difference to the country's overall GHG emissions *if* everyone did it. That's the thing, though - efforts like this will remain tokenistic for as long as they're voluntary, because people en masse are lazy and short-sighted and won't do it if they don't have to.

 

[fokse vektaire xeven]

yes yes, we all know that. the point is what it gives people in a transactory sense. similar i suppose to the fairtrade debate that was had on here a while ago

 

[john eden]

What using energy efficient lightbulbs gives people is the same as what reading Zizek gives people though?

 

[IdleRich]

"What using energy efficient lightbulbs gives people is the same as what reading Zizek gives people though?"

A headache?

 

[Mr. Tea]

But if people are making a (small) difference, why shouldn't they feel good about it? I'm getting really fed up with the self-satisfied doom-mongering of people who've 'seen through it all' and are seemingly happy for the whole world to go to hell because it's our just deserts for being so profligate and consumerist. (Hello, gek-opel!)

The worst thing about this attitude is that if we're not careful it's going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.