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22085 Posts in 2155 Topics- by 216 Members - Latest Member: TrudaHannah

May, 22, 2012 - Loading...
LiteraryMaryConversation and PieJunk in the TrunkSlavoj Žižek
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Author Topic: Slavoj Žižek  (Read 511 times)
Ġakbu
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« on: December 31, 2010, 02:03:37 AM »



He is a very perceptive philosopher, critic; his forte is that he manages to bring everything in, combining 'high' and 'low' culture, distant topics, and so on. He speaks, almost exclusively, about the 'present day', and I would say that although he is very much ideology-driven (at least he's honest about it), his analysis is often topnotch, at least in my perspective. Film, literature, music, toilets, pornography, he talks about everything, which is why, perhaps, he's written many books and articles, and has many videos scattered on the internet. I think this short video here, as it is animated, is a good introduction to some of his preoccupations.

The one analysis of his that concerns me most is for the future: that we should cut ourselves off from nature, since nature is chaotic, that we should embrace ourselves, our humanity but not in the old Genesis way of Man being the master of all things. He's also very important with regard to literary criticism. What's more, you can quote him on almost whichever topic you like, so he's very useful for university students!

« Last Edit: December 31, 2010, 02:04:55 AM by Ġakbu » Logged
 
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« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2010, 03:19:53 PM »


I hadn't heard of him until now but after listening to that lecture I will most certainly be making a purchase.

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his forte is that he manages to bring everything in, combining 'high' and 'low' culture, distant topics, and so on


This is exactly what I've been looking for in philosophers and cultural critics lately, and exactly what I aspire to attain in my own critical writing--an adventure upon which I've recently decided to embark. I'm about halfway through David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster, and while he could be more neatly aligned with literary criticism, he still has (or had) his hand in a wide variety of disciplines. The more I read of DFW, the more tragic his suicide becomes.

Thanks for sharing. Tomorrow my favorite book store is having a 25% sale. Fortunately, they happen to have a few books by Žižek in stock.
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Ġakbu
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« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2011, 04:04:40 AM »


My pleasure.

I was pleasantly introduced to Žižek myself in this little clip:



After that, I watched the whole of that interview, and began to ingratiate myself in many of his full-length lectures that are found on youtube; articles; and so on. He also writes (and speaks) very interestingly about religion - mainly Christianity and Islam - it's not your typical Dawkinesque/Hitchens critique of religion, so in the suffocating polarization of fundamentalists versus scientific-reductionists (with a big side-dollop of indifferent people), I think it's refreshing. Along with Adorno, I find him to be the most perceptive of the Marxist critics, though of course, Adorno was elitist, thus much more concerned with low culture's usurpation of high culture 'artifacts/pieces'. One think about Žižek: his jargon can be tiring - it's typical of Marxist critics I guess, but he uses a lot of psychoanalytic terminology (from Lacan) so at parts it can be like reading Hegel, or rather, like trying to read Hegel: mud mud mud. I had never heard of David Foster Wallace before, but I've read a bit about him now, and his novel Infinite Jest's description seems to corroborate that expansive nature which you were talking about - I'm trying to think of the last time I've seen a picture of a novelist with long hair.
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