Against The Double Blackmail is a very different book. Much shorter, it also has the clarity of a newspaper column. Of the Left, Žižek nevertheless has a go at many on the Left who he feels have no adequate response to the refugee/migrant crisis. Žižek argues: “The ultimate cause of refugees is today’s global capitalism itself and its geopolitical games.” He ends the book, “Let’s bring class struggle back”, acknowledging “maybe such global solidarity is a utopia”. Here at least Žižek is saying something clearly, even if, in the opinion of this reviewer, it’s completely inane.
Nevertheless, Žižek has to be given full marks for effort. There is also Antigone, Žižek’s remix of Sophocles’ play, which comes with a foreword by Hanif Kureishi, and a introduction by Žižek nearly as long as the play (and which, if you don’t know Paul Claudel’s play L’Otage, isn’t going to make much sense). I have to say Žižek’s version reads well on the page, but whether it has dramatic legs I can’t tell.
These books left me with admiration for Žižek’s industry and education, if not his substance. If Socrates was a gadfly, Žižek is a dotty bumblebee flitting from one notion to another. His wizardry with cut-and-paste is impressive, and it’s not his fault that there are simpletons in the academic world who take him seriously, because I doubt he takes himself seriously. Look at the gurning photo of Žižek at the back of Against the Double Blackmail and surely he’s giving the careful observer another wink: “Yes, I am the Communist clown” — although he’s missing the red nose, which in his case would be especially pertinent.
If you want a proper cerebral read I’d recommend Harry G. Frankfurt’s On Inequality, which is a more thoughtful assessment of poverty than Žižek’s, or indeed Frankfurt’s On Bullshit, which came to mind when I was perusing Disparities.
Žižek’s big on Shakespeare, so let me close in Žižekian fashion with a quotation from Macbeth that sums up his work: “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” But, hey, classy sound and fury, and love the retro 1970s dialectic.
Nevertheless, Žižek has to be given full marks for effort. There is also Antigone, Žižek’s remix of Sophocles’ play, which comes with a foreword by Hanif Kureishi, and a introduction by Žižek nearly as long as the play (and which, if you don’t know Paul Claudel’s play L’Otage, isn’t going to make much sense). I have to say Žižek’s version reads well on the page, but whether it has dramatic legs I can’t tell.
These books left me with admiration for Žižek’s industry and education, if not his substance. If Socrates was a gadfly, Žižek is a dotty bumblebee flitting from one notion to another. His wizardry with cut-and-paste is impressive, and it’s not his fault that there are simpletons in the academic world who take him seriously, because I doubt he takes himself seriously. Look at the gurning photo of Žižek at the back of Against the Double Blackmail and surely he’s giving the careful observer another wink: “Yes, I am the Communist clown” — although he’s missing the red nose, which in his case would be especially pertinent.
If you want a proper cerebral read I’d recommend Harry G. Frankfurt’s On Inequality, which is a more thoughtful assessment of poverty than Žižek’s, or indeed Frankfurt’s On Bullshit, which came to mind when I was perusing Disparities.
Žižek’s big on Shakespeare, so let me close in Žižekian fashion with a quotation from Macbeth that sums up his work: “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” But, hey, classy sound and fury, and love the retro 1970s dialectic.
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