Slavoj Zizek, 59, was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is a professor at the European Graduate School, international director of the Birkbeck Institute for Humanities in London and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana's institute of sociology. He has written more than 30 books on subjects as diverse as Hitchcock, Lenin and 9/11, and also presented the TV series The Pervert's Guide To Cinema.
When were you happiest?
A few times when I looked forward to a happy moment or remembered it - never when it was happening.
What is your greatest fear?
To awaken after death - that's why I want to be burned immediately.
What is your earliest memory?
My mother naked. Disgusting.
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the twice-deposed president of Haiti. He is a model of what can be done for the people even in a desperate situation.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Indifference to the plights of others.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Their sleazy readiness to offer me help when I don't need or want it.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
Standing naked in front of a woman before making love.
Aside from a property, what's the most expensive thing you've bought?
The new German edition of the collected works of Hegel.
What is your most treasured possession?
See the previous answer.
What makes you depressed?
Seeing stupid people happy.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
That it makes me appear the way I really am.
What is your most unappealing habit?
The ridiculously excessive tics of my hands while I talk.
What would be your fancy dress costume of choice?
A mask of myself on my face, so people would think I am not myself but someone pretending to be me.
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Watching embarrassingly pathetic movies such as The Sound Of Music.
What do you owe your parents?
Nothing, I hope. I didn't spend a minute bemoaning their death.
To whom would you most like to say sorry, and why?
To my sons, for not being a good enough father.
What does love feel like?
Like a great misfortune, a monstrous parasite, a permanent state of emergency that ruins all small pleasures.
What or who is the love of your life?
Philosophy. I secretly think reality exists so we can speculate about it.
What is your favourite smell?
Nature in decay, like rotten trees.
Have you ever said 'I love you' and not meant it?
All the time. When I really love someone, I can only show it by making aggressive and bad-taste remarks.
Which living person do you most despise, and why?
Medical doctors who assist torturers.
What is the worst job you've done?
Teaching. I hate students, they are (as all people) mostly stupid and boring.
What has been your biggest disappointment?
What Alain Badiou calls the 'obscure disaster' of the 20th century: the catastrophic failure of communism.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
My birth. I agree with Sophocles: the greatest luck is not to have been born - but, as the joke goes on, very few people succeed in it.
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
To Germany in the early 19th century, to follow a university course by Hegel.
How do you relax?
Listening again and again to Wagner.
How often do you have sex?
It depends what one means by sex. If it's the usual masturbation with a living partner, I try not to have it at all.
What is the closest you've come to death?
When I had a mild heart attack. I started to hate my body: it refused to do its duty to serve me blindly.
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
To avoid senility.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
The chapters where I develop what I think is a good interpretation of Hegel.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
That life is a stupid, meaningless thing that has nothing to teach you.
Tell us a secret.
Communism will win.
― Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 18 September 2008 09:22 (fifteen years ago) link
That's OTM. My greatest fear is dying and being a consciousness trapped in a dead body.
― Mordy, Thursday, 18 September 2008 09:25 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.jewcy.com/post/defense_zizek
Good stuff.
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 09:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Eh, I'd say he's constructing a bit of a stawn man there.
― Shacknasty (Frogman Henry), Thursday, 4 December 2008 09:56 (fifteen years ago) link
er, strawn man.
fuck it.
was just trying to remember, what was his point about passive-aggressive parenting being "less honest" than the "totalitarian style"? something about the glance at the room + "have you cleaned your room today?" vs. "clean your room now"
― BIG WORLD HOOS. WEBSTEEN. (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 4 December 2008 10:06 (fifteen years ago) link
Shack, you mean the original article was a strawman, right? Cause the one I linked to is a defense of Zizek. Unless you think he was strawmanning the critics?
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 10:22 (fifteen years ago) link
naw, it was a poor gag. look at the guy's name.
― Shacknasty (Frogman Henry), Thursday, 4 December 2008 10:25 (fifteen years ago) link
<3 u Ziz
― Tá a fhios agam, nach bhfuil? (I know, right?), Thursday, 4 December 2008 10:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Xp. Cute, you earned retroactive lolz from me.
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Reading both those pieces inspired me to read Enjoy Your Symptom! Now I just need to find a copy cheap (InterLib Loan!)
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:08 (fifteen years ago) link
so sick of people calling dude a closet authoritarian
― BIG WORLD HOOS. WEBSTEEN. (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:13 (fifteen years ago) link
My fave Zizek clip:
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Would kill for a Zizek film critic gig at the Voice (or wherever).
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:19 (fifteen years ago) link
this one's still my fave, this or the fragile absolute interview with the local newsman
― BIG WORLD HOOS. WEBSTEEN. (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:24 (fifteen years ago) link
It's like the Beatles V. the Ramones. When I read Adorno, I'm blown away and shocked and awed. When I read Zizek, I feel like - hey, that's cool. I could do that too.
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:29 (fifteen years ago) link
Bummer! I thought the thread title read: "This is the thread where we talk like Slavoj Zizek"
― Dan I., Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Is there a good intro to all those terms he uses from (I assume) Lacan? The Big Other, the Real & the Imaginary & the Symbolic, the little a etc? I always feel like I'm completely missing the point of Zizek's stuff because I don't have a proper idea what those things mean. Also, I hear Lacan's a dreadfully tough read, one I don't think I'm up to.
I'm aware that Zizek's written such an intro himself.
― Øystein, Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Lacan, Baudrillard, Hegel... I mean those are the places to start, I guess. If you're really looking for a fun, easy opening, Baudrillard's Simulacra is really good. Tho a lot of my friends say that it's stupid and unoriginal (but I enjoyed it!).
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:35 (fifteen years ago) link
I mean, a lot of what he's talking about in those clips is kinda 'swimming in the waters of theory,' and I'm not sure I can place all of it. Certainly some of it should be accessible to any American living in a culture where Matrix was a hit flick, right?
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Or, ya know, this is ILX and it's 6:30 in the morning and I'm awake. Ask whatever particular question you had and I'll give my interpretation/understanding (with no promise that it's the correct one).
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Thanks, I don't really have any specific question at the moment though. (I'm at work, so I've not watched any of the clips, just talking about previous experiences reading him)
― Øystein, Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:39 (fifteen years ago) link
Can we make a "talk like Zizek" thread?
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 11:41 (fifteen years ago) link
Zizek on religion is always the best, I zone out a little when he gets too "idealogical system" on me though.
― Tá a fhios agam, nach bhfuil? (I know, right?), Thursday, 4 December 2008 17:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Mordy, did you used to have a longer name on this dealy?
― Tá a fhios agam, nach bhfuil? (I know, right?), Thursday, 4 December 2008 21:47 (fifteen years ago) link
A long while ago.
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 21:51 (fifteen years ago) link
thought you didn't seem that new
― Tá a fhios agam, nach bhfuil? (I know, right?), Thursday, 4 December 2008 21:58 (fifteen years ago) link
I've been posting on and off since at least 2005.
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 22:02 (fifteen years ago) link
as mordy?
― Tá a fhios agam, nach bhfuil? (I know, right?), Thursday, 4 December 2008 22:03 (fifteen years ago) link
As my longer name; m0rd3ch4i sh1n3f13ld
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 22:06 (fifteen years ago) link
That seems google-proof enough, right?
Aha! that's who I was talking about, I used to really enjoy your poptimist style posts, anyway I think the Zizek I've enjoyed most is the Puppet and the Dwarf partic for this little nugget: "to become a true dialectical materialist, one should go through the Christian experience." Which is kind of interesting because by focusing on the fetishistic, materialistic nature of christianity via the eucharist, he opens up these really interesting, if kindof oblique, intersections with Benjamin and Kierkegaard and a kind of dialectical theology.
― Tá a fhios agam, nach bhfuil? (I know, right?), Thursday, 4 December 2008 22:09 (fifteen years ago) link
if i saw all same thngs in mobies can i hab book deel plz? surly if zizek is marxst i shldnt be bartend?
― Shh! It's NOT Me!, Thursday, 4 December 2008 23:06 (fifteen years ago) link
Yes.
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 23:10 (fifteen years ago) link
― Øystein, Thursday, December 4, 2008 11:33 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark
this?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0860915921/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
― BIG WORLD HOOS. WEBSTEEN. (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 4 December 2008 23:13 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Always-Wanted-about-Lacan/dp/0860915921
or wait no i saw that one but never read it, this is the one i read
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4102K46WXWL._SS500_.jpg
― BIG WORLD HOOS. WEBSTEEN. (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 4 December 2008 23:14 (fifteen years ago) link
Enjoy Your Symptom! is also a Lacan primer more or less.
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 December 2008 23:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Seriously, where is the best place to start with Zizek? Or should I say easiest? I can read Baudrillard but all I was able to accomplish with "Specters of Marx" was removing it from its plastic.
― Shh! It's NOT Me!, Friday, 5 December 2008 00:05 (fifteen years ago) link
If you just want to do Zizek, do "The Sublime Object." If you want to do Lacan thru Zizek, some of those primers look good.
― Mordy, Friday, 5 December 2008 00:07 (fifteen years ago) link
But like -- I'm not sure Zizek is the best person to read if you want to do theory. There are definitely better places to start. And he's kinda -- ya know -- a parody.
― Mordy, Friday, 5 December 2008 00:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Can I just do Zizek or I do I have to do Zizek through Lacan? People seem to think the latter. So maybe "Looking Awry" is first and then "The Sublime Object"? Thanks.
XpostI don't know what I am trying to do except become smarter and maybe someday have some sort of insight on the things about the world that I find problematic so that I might be able to contribute positively towards the solution of those problems.
― Shh! It's NOT Me!, Friday, 5 December 2008 00:10 (fifteen years ago) link
If we are talking about the distinction between social theory and social criticism as being the difference between trying to come up with new ideas on how to understand culture vs using those ideas to critique culture then I find criticism be easier to read because it usually refers to things outside of philosophy but i know i have to read theory to advance my own process of becoming relatively more independent in my thinking.
― Shh! It's NOT Me!, Friday, 5 December 2008 00:17 (fifteen years ago) link
"Zizek through Lacan" meaning that a good understanding of the former can only come from a good understanding of the latter.
― Shh! It's NOT Me!, Friday, 5 December 2008 00:18 (fifteen years ago) link
http://jdeanicite.typepad.com/i_cite/2008/12/quick-and-dirty.html
The truth is that I think the NR critique is speaking to something when it calls Zizek an anti-Semite. I don't think Zizek /is/ an anti-Semite, but I think there's something about the jew that he misses because he's talking about the Jew (and the Sound of Music clip I think is a good example of this). I used this quote in a different thread recently, but Celan wrote in "Conversations in the Mountain," "So it was quiet, quiet, up there in the mountains. It wasn't quiet for long, because when one Jew comes along and meets another, then it's goodbye silence, even in the mountains. Because the Jew and Nature, that's two very different things, as always, even today, even here."
That encounter (between Jew + Jew, Jew + Nature) is something that Zizek, I think, has no time for it. It is a chattering, a discussion, an exchange of words, where there is no time for Nature. And I think he doesn't want to explore that (even acknowledging the irony that he's working in a field very influenced by that sort of encounter). So the NR sees this as anti-Semitic (when he says that The only good thing Judaism has given is the idea of Messianic), but I think it's just a shifted emphasis. I mean, Zizek is all about the violent interruption of the simulcra, the moment that the facade is pulled clear. So the chatting is no good for that.
I don't know. Maybe this reading of Zizek is wrong.
― Mordy, Friday, 5 December 2008 00:23 (fifteen years ago) link
the thing about that clip above is that his argument led so elegantly to the word cosmopolitan that I said it before him while watching the video. Why add the Jew part at all? To complete the inversion of values?
― Shh! It's NOT Me!, Friday, 5 December 2008 00:35 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely instrumental in that clip. From the Democrat Versus the Nazi into the Nazi Versus the Jew. It's understandable why he does it, I just think he's missing something essential in favor of something removed and distant.
― Mordy, Friday, 5 December 2008 00:36 (fifteen years ago) link
cultural critics seem to have this tendency to stretch just one tick past the destination on the map. as someone raised jewish, ie possibly biased, i think trying to examine prejudice against cosmopolitanism, urbanism, and even intellectualism is something more worthy of examination.
― Shh! It's NOT Me!, Friday, 5 December 2008 00:42 (fifteen years ago) link
ahaha
― BIG WORLD HOOS. WEBSTEEN. (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, 5 December 2008 00:53 (fifteen years ago) link