The Slavoj Zizek Speedrun

Above is a picture of Slavoj Zizek next to Ralph Fiennes, one of the best actors of our time. I’d figured a picture of Zizek next to someone more famous and handsome might elevate the appeal of this event.

At this Negative Space, I (Sawyer) am providing the topic for our next meeting's discussion. We’re going to attempt a daring speedrun of Slavoj Zizek’s philosophy, answering the following:

— What are Zizek’s major contributions to philosophy?
— Why does Zizek’s philosophy remain important?
— Why does Zizek’s theory involve this triad of philosophy, theology, and psychoanalysis?

I plan to address these questions in speedy fashion and then open the floor for our group discussion. The goal will also be to use as little jargon as possible, to try to communicate Zizek’s major ideas in plain language. Amongst the more jargon-y concepts crucial to understanding his work are “Superego” and “Disavowal,” which are concepts he uses from psychoanalytic theory. I’ll attempt to define these as clearly and plainly as I can within the context of his work. We will also explore Zizek’s relationship to comedy, and unpack a Zizekian joke or two...

I’m hoping this event will be a fun one. If you’ve read or listened to Zizek, you might have noticed he’s a pretty hilarious and/or grotesque guy. This event was inspired by the feeling that Zizek is too often dismissed today as either a babbling idiot or an irrelevant communist. I get the sense also that because he has written over 55 books, some over a thousand pages, it's easy to get lost in the sauce due to his idiosyncratic, tangential style.  In light of this, I want to try and communicate what I think is at the heart of his work, not having read most of his books myself (+55 books is a lot of text... no one has time for that amount of reading except the author himself)... but there's this saying, "if you've read one, you've read them all," which I think is particularly true for Zizek.

In sum, what are the core ideas of Zizek's that ought to be remembered if we were doomed to forget the rest? There’s no doubt that a lot of worthwhile ideas of his will be overlooked, but as with any speedrun in a video game, you must refrain from all the various side quests and just stick with the main storyline.

Whether you’re familiar with Zizek, agnostic to Zizek, critical of Zizek, appreciate jokes, or perhaps haven’t got a clue of what this guy is talking about, my hope is that the discussion will be interesting and accessible to anyone at all who's remotely curious about his work.

See y’all at Hogshead!

Best,

Sawyer

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