Zizek Omnibus / Lacan dot com
(Updated today, 4thFeb 08, so links work)
An email today brings news of a wealth of Zizek material on Lacan.com, all of which looks interesting. Zizek was also on Radio4 yesterday – there is this humorous mention in the introduction the presenter gives to Zizek about how he is so ubiquitous within intellectual life that one academic has proposed starting an ‘anti-Zizek league’ (at the mention of which we hear Zizek, in the background, saying ‘give me his name…’ and the presenter deferring on doing so in public…). My own reaction to Zizek is curious, since on the one hand I think that there is a tension between the Zizekian/Lacanian philosophical analyses and the Deleuzian/Guattarian analysis around the question of lack and the productive ontological forces, a tension in which I find myself trying to draw on D/G against Z/L, whilst at the same time I am encouraged by the simple fact that Zizek is capable in our contemporary de-politicised and in some respects de-racinated intellectual culture of standing explicitly as a Marxist and as oppositional to capitalism. It reminds me of times during my active political life (by which I mean, when I was an active member of a revolutionary organisation) when there would be a kind of separation of discursive spaces, such that within a specific space a criticism (sometimes quite violent and extensive) might be raised against another political perspective which would, on no account, be expressed outside that particular space, in the ‘everyday’ world as it were. To do so would be tantamount to a kind of betrayal and such activity is what is often called ’sectarianism’, a practice in which the criticism and combat against another group (sect) would become more important that any common goals. This peculiar practice is still one I find myself engaged in at various points, though I increasingly wonder about its efficacy. More on that another time perhaps…for now, have a listen to the Slovenian and perhaps spend a little time perusing some of the fascinating resources listed below…
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