In Defense of Lost Causes
by Slavoj Zizek (Verso, £19.99)
If you had to put money on which academic would be the first to play Wembley Arena, you’d have to go for Slavoj Zizek. Once dubbed “the Elvis of cultural theory,” Zizek is the author of some 40 books ranging in subject from Hitchcock to Christianity, from the Iraq war to Lacanian psychoanalysis. As relaxed discussing Jennifer Aniston as Kant’s theory of the phenomenon, he’s almost too good to be true. Look at his background: born in 1949 in Slovenia, a country perfect for that outsider, slightly marginalised status every intellectual needs. And it comes with the added bonus of an outrageous accent which, as anyone who’s seen him lecture will vouch, simply adds to his undeniable charisma. Then there’s that fantastic Scrabble-winning triumph of a name (worth 43 points—never let it be said that book reviewers don’t do their research). Surely he’s actually a bloke from Wolverhampton called Kevin who’s taking us all for a ride.
If that is the case, then Kevin is doing a brilliant job. In Defense of Lost Causes is typical Zizek: exhilarating, inspiring, thought-provoking and sometimes very, very hard. Zizek is a Lacanian-Hegelian, constantly drawing on Lacan’s reworking of Freud and his own reworking of Hegel’s idealist philosophy as he whips from Kierkegaard to Borat, from Althusser to internet masturbatathons. Chapter headings like “The Crisis of Determinate Negation” and “Unbehagen in der Natur” don’t exactly conjure up a relaxed deckchair read, but what makes the difficult bits worthwhile is the sheer verve and passion of Zizek’s argument—that, and the machine-gun scattering of original thought and mischievous wit from his headlong narrative. As a particularly competitive friend of mine put it, you’re conversationally guaranteed to “win” any dinner party with this kind of ammunition. I’m certainly looking forward to some extra aubergine polenta for my Zizekian thesis that Schindler’s List is just Jurassic Park with the Nazis as dinosaurs.
If you are a subscriber, please log in »
This article is available to subscribers only
Subscribing to Prospect is the most reliable and convenient way to receive the magazine every month, and offers the best value.Subscription Types:
Online
An online subscription offers you complete and unlimited access to the entire website, including our searchable archive of every back issue of Prospect, and a PDF edition of each new issue: all this for just £20 per year. Purchase an online subscription »Renewal
Renew an existing subscription »Institutional access
If you are a library, business organisation or any other large institution that needs a multi-user licence, you can obtain institutional access.
Share
Subscribe to post comments
Comments (1):
Print
[...] This review first appeared in Prospect Magazine. [...]