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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
I dare say this is an introductory material if one is already fairly familiar with Zizek, with modern philosophy, and with popular culture (which runs the gamut in this book from Hitchcock to Shakespeare, detective novels, science fiction and pornography). I am somewhat familiar with Zizek, philosophy, and pop culture, and I was still occasionally at sea trying to understand the points Zizek is making. He is, as is his wont, all over the place, circling wildly around his point and approaching from any and every angle. Mostly it has to do with the boundary between Reality and the Real, why that boundary is necessary, and the placeholders for the Real that we create in order to help us stay sane. We cannot, according to Lacan and perhaps Zizek, actually handle the gaping void of the Real. I think.
Zizek is one of the worst authors I’ve ever read, his repetition of the same three phrases gets exhausting 30 pages in and is only made worse by the density of this book, which required me to reread paragraphs and chapters often to understand a word or phrase that was central to the topic at hand for 5 pages before never being mentioned again. This book is a very clear representation of Zizek’s flow of consciousness, explaining more about the insanity of its author than the topic it supposedly covers (its analysis of Lacan is deep and thorough but, to me at least, too dense and difficult to be a proper introduction to Lacan), and I genuinely loved that aspect. I’m able to look past the repeating phrases, brief explorations, rapid topic changes, and rushed sections as they all make sense within the framework of a Zizek book, but I could never recommend this to anyone else ever. I have about four sections saved in notes on my phone that blew me away, and reading them back after finishing it’s very funny how little they have to do with the main themes of Lacan and pop culture. Zizek is incredibly lucky to be as smart and funny as he is, it carries his work much further than I believe it really deserves, which I’m very thankful for as the topics covered are deeply interesting and worth investigation.
adventurous
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
if you appreciate Zizek's writing or used to get stuck with Lacan's psychoanalysis, you will probably read this book till the end.
Reading Zizek on movies makes me want to binge watch Hitchcock movies
challenging
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Unfortunately I haven't seen or read the majority of the references in this book - I need to return after watching Hitchcock's entire catalogue, to start - but Zizek does a pretty good job of explaining the important parts so that I still understood more or less what he was getting at. A challenging read but an enjoyable one nonetheless, and I think it works well as an introduction to Lacan as well as Zizek himself.
"We can acquire a sense of the dignity of another's fantasy only by assuming a kind of distance toward our own, by experiencing the ultimate contingency of fantasy as such, by apprehending it as the way everyone, in a manner proper to each, conceals the impasse of his desire. The dignity of a fantasy consists in its very 'illusionary,' fragile, helpless character."
"We can acquire a sense of the dignity of another's fantasy only by assuming a kind of distance toward our own, by experiencing the ultimate contingency of fantasy as such, by apprehending it as the way everyone, in a manner proper to each, conceals the impasse of his desire. The dignity of a fantasy consists in its very 'illusionary,' fragile, helpless character."