ZIZEK! Is An Engrossing Documentary On Philosopher Slavoj Zizek
ZIZEK! is a wonderful documentary on Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek who works in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. As an academic he has made contributions to political theory, film theory and theoretical psychoanalysis and has spoken extensively on the ongoing global financial crisis. To many he is an intellectual maverick; some regarding him as one of the foremost intellectuals of the radical left while others simply dismissing him as an academic rockstar.
The film was directed by Astra Taylor and presents Žižek as both a controversial public intellectual and delightfully vulgar man. In the film he claims to be not a human being but a “monster,” a “nothing who pretends to be something” who must speak rapidly and provocatively “just to fascinate people enough so they don’t notice there is nothing.” As he says himself:
But fuck it, let’s speak frankly, no bullshit, most of the left hates me even though I am supposed to be one of the world’s leading communist intellectuals.
From what I’ve seen of him on film he has one rare quality. A quality that many academics lack – the ability to talk in plain language. And for that alone I admire him.
Enjoy the documentary and pass it along. Its not often you get the chance to watch a film on a public intellectual who comes out of the left field. As it were.
Via Open Culture
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