Slavoj Zizek

[kev67]

Slavoj Zizek, the scruffy, sweaty, sibilant Slovenian: is he any good? He is quite entertaining. I first came across him when he presented a programme called The Pervert's Guide to the Cinema, which was not what I expected. I expected it to be all the best bits from X-rated films, but insteasd it was a psychological examination of various famous film classics. He used Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo as an example of how realizing a dream does not make a dream come true, but turns it into a nightmare. I am not sure about that now I have written it down, but anyway, it was quite an entertaining programme. He also provided the inspiration for this entertaining RSA animate, in which he quotes Oscar Wilde. I was surprised when I turned on YouTube this afternoon to see him speak for three minutes in a commercial. He was talking about freedom. It was the only YouTube commercial I have not skipped as soon as I could, but I wondered what he was actually advertising. It turned out to be The Guardian.

[Lykren]

He also wrote ad copy for Abercrombie & Fitch. Pretty good stuff!

[kev67]

He also wrote ad copy for Abercrombie & Fitch. Pretty good stuff!

Really?

[Lykren]

Yep, and here it is:

http://www.critical-theory.com/that-...crombie-fitch/

EDIT: And he's slovenian, not serbian, by the way.

[Marbles]

The Borat of philosophy" http://www.salon.com/2012/12/29/slav...t_philosopher/

Whether you like what he says or do not, you have to give it to him that he has so ingenuously brought critical thinking back to the masses.

[ladderandbucket]

I can only understand about half of what talks about. It's not his accent, but the speed he talks at and the random digressions. He does come out with some brilliant insights, but I can never quite pin down the overall point he is trying to make. Quite an amusing character though.

Not read any of his books, but I enjoyed this short essay on kinder eggs: http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/11/kinderEgg.php

[Poetaster]

I tend to most like Zizek when I read him, if that makes sense. As others have said, be can have some very astute, and perhaps brilliant comments, but he's a Lacanian Communist who rallies against ideology. I can't help but notice a contradiction there.

[Lykren]

According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy he uses the classical Marxist definition of the word 'ideology,' in which context it means "discourses that promote false ideas." He doesn't so much rally (did you mean rail?) against ideology in his work so much as he insists that we have not eliminated the presence of ideology from our world.

[Blanchot]

Depends on who you speak to, since Zizek has gotten a bad rep over the years for rehashing his own work. He is his best critic. Also, there is a lot of conclusions that are speculatory.

Although I haven't read it yet (will soon), Sublime Object shows a lot of his intellectual rigor and strength that made him famous in the first place. Highly recommend it, especially if you want to catch the Althusser wave that is about to come.