Zizek: seems like a nob

[el-ahrairah]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jun/10/slavoj-zizek-humanity-ok-people-boring

it's a name i've heard brought up a fair few times on urban but i know almost nothing about him or his work. this article made me think he was an idiot, but it doesn't really touch on his actual, you know, philosophy.

is there anything to it that i should be reading in order to have a greater understanding of the world around me?

 

[Santino]

I take it you mean 'knob'. A nob is an aristrocrat.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I've never managed to make head nor tail of anything he says, tbh. He seems to write in that deliberately obscure manner beloved of continental philosophers, which I've never been able to fathom.

 

[smmudge]

I like him. I find some of his stuff accessible and illuminating. Not all of it.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I take it you mean 'knob'. A nob is an aristrocrat.

I prefer to spell the insult 'nob', personally. Calling someone a 'knob' makes it sound like you're comparing them to a door handle.

 

[Knotted]

I don't like his books - hard to penetrate and once you have penetrated them they are disappointing. I don't find him very impressive, but I do sort of like him. He's provocative and gets me thinking. Occasionally he gets promoted as a political thinker but most of his political commentary is just not very good... Last time I paid him any attention he was drifting off into some sort of atheistic rehabilitation of Christianity - literally trying to prove that Christianity itself is atheistic (don't ask )... I think he's responsible for some great youtubery and he's a pretty perceptive cultural (esp. film) commentator.

 

[Wolveryeti]

.

 

[Wolveryeti]

He gets thumbs from me for being intelligent and a good observer - and not being afraid to speak his branes. Agree the books are generally not accessible - the films are great though - highly recommend !Zizek and the Pervert's Guide to Cinema.

 

[butchersapron]

He gets thumbs from me for being intelligent and a good observer - and not being afraid to speak his branes. Agree the books are generally not accessible - the films are great though - highly recommend !Zizek and the Pervert's Guide to Cinema.

In the first of your epic series of edits you said 'it' and that he was happy to talk out about 'it' -what is /was it?

I've got nothing from him but a demand to be political and a rejection of multi-culturalism. His own embrace of politics might have driven the first or the pathetic whining of the left that he now experiences since his rejection.

 

[el-ahrairah]

I take it you mean 'knob'. A nob is an aristrocrat.

nob. short for nobber. one who nobs.

 

[butchersapron]

Knobfuckers.

 

[Santino]

Zizek and I were friends for a while. Well, we went out for meals a few times. Which is to say, we once had lunch together. By which I mean, I once saw him in a restaurant.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

I take it you mean 'knob'. A nob is an aristrocrat.

Same thing, no?

 

[Orang Utan]

nob. short for nobber. one who nobs.

That's knob, knobber, knobbing

 

[el-ahrairah]

UD is happy to agree with my variation http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nobber

so anyway, will i get anything from Zizek?

 

[butchersapron]

a particularly modern std

 

[el-ahrairah]

best not then

 

[Blagsta]

Like the clap?

 

[Blagsta]

a particularly modern std

You bastard

 

[butchersapron]

You bastard

I didn't start it!

 

[Knotted]

Last time I paid him any attention he was drifting off into some sort of atheistic rehabilitation of Christianity - literally trying to prove that Christianity itself is atheistic (don't ask ).

This, by the way is the reason why he is a better cultural commentator than he is a political commentator. He likes to have everything both ways which is sort of dialectical if you like. When discussing a film or work of art or a cultural norm it's good to pull in all the contradictory aspects but In politics that just means being all over the place.

 

[goldenecitrone]

highly recommend !Zizek and the Pervert's Guide to Cinema.

Yep, brilliant stuff.

 

[butchersapron]

I think that says it all.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Indeed.

 

[Brainaddict]

Someone posted this on facebook http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n11/slavoj-zizek/save-us-from-the-saviours
with the comment that something must be going on if even Zizek has stopped talking shit.

Very occasionally he does stop talking shit - I thought some of his comments on occupy were worth the listening time.

But mostly he is a sleb intellectual with too little involvement in actual politics to be able to write good political theory - can't comment on his cultural stuff, except someone pointed out, I think correctly, that The Pervert's Guide to Cinema is not as deep as it seems, because he makes all these Freudian links between film-makers as though it is a stunningly interesting interpretation of their work, when actually a lot of them were steeped in Freud and very deliberately referenced his ideas.

When he does do political commentary he can't seem to get away from authoritarianism either. I think he's called himself a Leninist or something hasn't he?

 

[butchersapron]

Talking shit is why you are talking about him. You have no idea about his projection of lacanian stuff onto the social level. Hes had more direct involvmenrt in practical politics than you and in very different conditions. If his stuff is striking a chord why? Why not inform yourself about what his leninsim entails? And don't even think about replying well if you're so clever why don't you tell me?

All that wasted learning.

 

[bluestreak]

ok, now tell me about Lacanianism. we never covered him in my polytechnic philosophy degree either. he's got a lot to do with Hegel doesn't he?

 

[butchersapron]

Nope Don't waste your time on this cul-de-sac, i beg you..

 

[ViolentPanda]

I prefer to spell the insult 'nob', personally. Calling someone a 'knob' makes it sound like you're comparing them to a door handle.

Or a penis-end, which is sort of the point, mate.

 

[Blagsta]

ok, now tell me about Lacanianism. we never covered him in my polytechnic philosophy degree either. he's got a lot to do with Hegel doesn't he?

More Freud than Hegel I'd have thought. Not that I've read any.