/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.6548324]

What is academic response to zizek?

I ask because I just watched all of his films, and I am in complete awe. he introduced a completely new and overwhelming world to me. but i'm not that well read in philosophy but i have enough awareness to consider that I may be a huge pleb, so I'm wondering if zizek could be like the michio kaku (a popularizer of physics but not a giant in the field in his own right) of philosophy, distilling centuries of work into a sensational 'popular' view to amaze plebs like me.

[Anonymous No.6548338]

I don't know about consensus but one professor I trust namedropped him in a positive light.

[Anonymous No.6548346]

But Michio Kaku actually wrote a theorem on string theory.

[Anonymous No.6548360]

it's not like it matters what some academics think here or there or even as a whole or a majority.

if he's a popularizer, he's doing it with lacan and not philosophy per se. later lacan in fact calls himself an anti-philosopher, in the sense that people like kierkegaard are anti-philosophers.

psychoanalytic film theory is already huge at least within film theory. maybe it is mostly that he popularizes explicitly.

but for you now he has created a broader desire for philosophy and that's a great thing.

[Anonymous No.6548430]

He is interesting and is gaining in academic traction of late, but he has a lot of critics, some who claim he hasn't said much of anything that is a novel contribution to philosophy/social theory, and some who claim that in order to be considered an academic figure you need to conduct empirical research

[Anonymous No.6548512]

>>6548324
Zizek is respected in continental circles, he's actually well read and studied at the center for his specialty, with Miller. Analyticals are assmad because they are assmad autists by definition

[Anonymous No.6548828]

>>6548338
In the exact same position, though the professor was young and vaguely trendy so might not be the best example of academia as a whole.

[Anonymous No.6549657]

>>6548338
One of my professors namedropps him frecuently.

[Anonymous No.6549663]

>What is academic response to zizek?
Go to bed, Zizek

[Anonymous No.6549689]

>>6549663

My God! Zizek is the Elvis of Cultural Theory, why - and here you will probably not believe me and so on haha - why on earth would he post here? Are you crazy or something?

People like you belong in a gulag for sure.

[Anonymous No.6549700]

>>6549689

this always confuses me

[Anonymous No.6549704]

>>6548324

Very astute, OP, that's exactly what Zizek is!

[Anonymous No.6549723]

>>6549700

And well it should.

[Anonymous No.6549752]

>>6548346
tell me about the tabs! why are there so many of them?

[Anonymous No.6549756]

He's the Michio Kaku of a particularly goofy form of philosophy, yes. I think he regrets becoming a celebrity and wishes that people knew him as a Hegel scholar and nothing else.

[Anonymous No.6549758]

>>6548324

I'll tell you from my perspective coming from a smaller liberal arts college that was mostly continental to a large research school which is a fair mix of continental and analytic. In undergrad he was popular among the students. I think this is largely because, as some have pointed out, he's good at popularizing philosophy. I only had one prof there, although he was my favorite and most student's favorite, who liked Zizek and had us read Zizek. He obviously took Zizek seriously. None of my other profs there really seemed to care about him and one of them detested him. In my grad school, most of the grad students know him, I would guess, but he isn't really discussed in a serious way. From the times he's come up in conversation it seems like a lot of the grad students, myself included, don't take him seriously as a philosopher but still enjoy some of his stuff because he occasionally has surprising and interesting points to make. He has never come up in any of my courses and I would bet that he's never come up in any of the courses I haven't taken while I've been here.

[Anonymous No.6549760]

Psychoanalytic film theory really needed to die, it mangled Lacan from the beginning. Some had begun to move towards correcting that, when this comedy Stalinist suddenly became a YouTube comedy hit, reheating his thirty-years-out-of-date canned game.

[Anonymous No.6549803]

He is popular among Marxists for reviving the Althusserian concept of idelogy and of course among Lacanians.

His most interesting work however is on Kant and Hegel, which is very good, in that he brings many overlooked points.

[Anonymous No.6549856]

>>6548346
Kaku is also a professor on some university and so is Zizek, also about your pic wouldn't Zizek's proper academic have been done in Yugoslavia?

[Anonymous No.6549861]

Film Studies is a field that owes its existence in the academy to the money it raises from undergraduates who love watching movies.

It is overwhelmingly the professional preserve of people who can't analyze the specifics of an image/sound and refer everything instead to other, irrelevant disciplines.

I have never understood why this is permitted to continue, but it is.

[Anonymous No.6549867]

>>6549856
>proper academic
proper academic work*

[Anonymous No.6549904]

>implying academia should be taken seriously

Ya how about nahh. They wouldn't even give Marx professorship

[Anonymous No.6549912]

Daily reminder that there's an International Journal of Zizek Studies.

http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/ijzs/index

[Anonymous No.6549920]

>>6549904
Would you, given his political background?

[Anonymous No.6549924]

>>6549912
Wasn't it started by Zizek?

[Anonymous No.6549928]

>>6549904
Obviously. That dude was a communist.

[Anonymous No.6549929]

>>6549912
>>6549924

Really hope this is true.

[Anonymous No.6549935]

>>6549912

Anybody can make a journal about anything.

>>6549904

Even if Marx deserved professorship wherever you think he should have, this is some hilarious logic. "A particular institution denied professorship to someone I like over 100 years ago, therefore ALL OF ACADEMIA IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED!" lol

[Anonymous No.6549940]

>>6549904

If Zizek played theaters like other kinds of entertainer, I could agree. But he plays campus theaters and lecture halls.

[Anonymous No.6549975]

>>6549904
Ugh, I shudder at the thought of what Marx could have become had he joined academia. goddamned wankers

[Anonymous No.6549978]

>>6549935
you actually disagree with the statement "all of academia is not to be trusted" ?

[Anonymous No.6549983]

>>6549978

Yes, because anon isn't doing the Stewart Home act you're obviously warming up to.

[Anonymous No.6550017]

>>6549978

Yes, and if you agree with it then you're one of the pieces of mindless trash making this world a shittier place.

[Anonymous No.6550020]

>>6549983
dnno what that means
>>6550017
try and be a little more inventive even if u have to fake it, thats one of the most trite and boring insults conceivable

[Anonymous No.6550033]

>>6550020

I wasn't interested in being original. I was interested in making my point, which you clearly understood. Even if the statement is true, it clearly doesn't follow from the premise. Stop being a dumb ass.

[Anonymous No.6550036]

>>6550020
Do you even go to college or uni, or have you gone? If not, you're not qualified to have an opinion. If so, you expect me to believe that you've never had a professor you felt you could trust as an authority? If you went to a shit school, fine, but if not, then you're probably just a butthurt dilletante. Not that anyone here is anything else.

[Anonymous No.6550052]

>>6550033
>clearly understood
no, what the fuck are you talking about me altering the overall quality "this world" do you even have a brain?

are you trying to paint universities as some kind of shining enlightened light in the stupid violent darkness and getting threatened by a challenge to their authority?

can you just reread "pieces of mindless trash making this world a shittier place" and figure out what the fuck you might be saying because there's nothing there

>>6550036
fuck off

[Anonymous No.6550053]

>>6549904
>they wouldn't give Marx professorship

What's the story behind this?

[Anonymous No.6550056]

>>6550052
You just proved the other anon's and my point with this post.

[Anonymous No.6550063]

>>6550052
>fuck off
Was getting mad part of your plan?

[Anonymous No.6550068]

I feel like taking a Philosophy class and just shitting up the place by quoting Zizek every day

What do you think lit?

[Anonymous No.6550071]

>>6550068
Please don't.

[Anonymous No.6550072]

>>6550056
ok my friend, if you wouldn't mind stooping so low as to explain you and your pal's point to me, i'd appreciate it

>>6550063
do you even need to ask

[Anonymous No.6550078]

>>6550072

[Anonymous No.6550082]

>>6550068
>quoting
Why not take it a step further and just imitate him?

[Anonymous No.6550122]

>>6550072
You should study more analytic philosophy, phriend.

[Anonymous No.6550139]

>>6550072
Our point is that " You should never trust academia because Marx never taught at a university" (professorship at European universities is actually ridiculously prestigious so I assume you meant an office other than the actual office of a professor) is a baseless statement that reflects an inexcusable ignorance on your part about the level of intelligence the average university faculty has as an academic subject, an equally inexcusable arrogance related to your disregard of the same intelligence (it's more likely to be arrogance than ignorance; how can anyone actually be that ignorant? If that's your actual position please say so), or a simple lack of a good education at an institution where you had an opportunity to take classes with people you felt were authoritative.
On some level, all of this is your fault; rationally, you should realize that many academics are experts in their fields.

[Anonymous No.6550159]

>>6550139
Too many clauses in that sentence

[Anonymous No.6550161]

>>6550139

Ah, but his feels anon. His feels.

[Anonymous No.6550163]

>>6550161
>mfw
I should add that he probably needs to repent & get right with God, like everyone else on this fucking board.

[Anonymous No.6550186]

>>6550139

Good first sentence.

[Anonymous No.6550188]

>>6550161
i feel nothing

i'm talking about nothing as well, i'm at a good university and it's fine and i trust my profs, haha, i wasted everyone's time, what a epic moment for me this is, the great reveal

[Anonymous No.6550193]

>>6550188
I'm glad you had fun pretending to be retarded. I've gotten a decent laugh out of this so I guess we both won.

[Anonymous No.6550195]

>>6548324
There's a Journal of Zizek studies
There are entries in scholarly encyclopedia
There are critical monographs of his work, while it is still "on going." (Most people acknowledge that he's just doing a skit at the moment, and everyone knows the number of his significant works is small).

More importantly, Zizek's contribution is not fruitful.

[Anonymous No.6550202]

DUDE IDEOLOGY LMAO

[Anonymous No.6550204]

>>6549904
Marx was a hack

[Anonymous No.6550205]

>>6550195
Pretty much this.
I also haven't seen much, if any, positive reaction to his interpretation of Hegel. I think that's the biggest problem with him: he isn't actually a Hegelian, he just talks about Hegel. I guess that just means he's a Lacanian, though.

[Anonymous No.6550213]

>>6548324

In The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, he said there are video games where you play as a rapist and murderer. There aren't.

[Anonymous No.6550214]

>>6550205
>I also haven't seen much, if any, positive reaction to his interpretation of Hegel.

Care to elaborate a bit more?

[Anonymous No.6550220]

>>6550193
that long post was a good one

also the authority over their field that profs do have still tends to feel kind of tenuous to me but being in silly liberal arts disciplines probably causes that

[Anonymous No.6550224]

>>6550213
>games you play as a rapist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapeLay
>games you play as a murderer
Every fps game in existence

[Anonymous No.6550229]

>>6549752
>if I close those tabs will you die
>it would take me a long time to reopen them
>you have enough time to shitpost
>for you

[Anonymous No.6550238]

>>6550214
He claims that Hegel's ontology involves reality being radically incomplete and involving a fundamental negativity of some sort, rather than being-as is normally claimed, by Hegel and countless other sources-an absolute idealist. Things like the totalitarianisms of the 20th century are his most concrete examples of this.

This isn't something Hegel would call truly dialectical thinking. Hegel is radically negative in a way many other philosophers associated with edginess aren't, but Zizek doesn't seem to want to accept that Hegel constantly refers to a 'higher unity' which is always, in some sense, mental. Hegel doesn't deny that Mind exists; Zizek is a materialist through and through, using Marx, Freud, and Lacan as lenses through which to read Hegel.

[Anonymous No.6550241]

>>6550213
>nig never heard of japan

[Anonymous No.6550247]

>>6550220
I'm majoring in history & philosophy. More rigorous disciplines tend to have more content. But a lot of professors are full of shit.

[Anonymous No.6550256]

>>6550238
>but Zizek doesn't seem to want to accept that Hegel constantly refers to a 'higher unity' which is always, in some sense, mental
My point is that this monism, in which Mind/Spirit is the medium in which things individuate themselves, contains within itself all possible negativities and positivities within itself. Zizek wants to read Hegel as if Hegel were a materialist, but this isn't possible because his system is spooky as fuck.

[Anonymous No.6550263]

>>6548324
well he's harder to take seriously, and he knows it, that's why he fakes his own suicide at the end of his biographical film.

but he's about on the level as say derrida, foucault, or the major french writers on those terms.

from what i've seen, most academics don't even know what to do with the likes of those people. every "analytic" interpretation i've seen of derrida, foucault, zizek, etc has been terrible.

remember, academics crave specialization so much that if your papers can only be read by a handful of people, you are the highest caliber.

[Anonymous No.6550276]

>>6550224
interestingly its hard to find games that actually allow you to rape people except when thats the whole point (its a porn game). but there are plenty of games where you can murder people although they're more rare than people think, since most games feature lawful violence like a soldier killing the enemy or fighting fantastic monsters of some kind

[Anonymous No.6550294]

>>6550276
>>>/gamergate/

[Anonymous No.6550297]

>>6550224

No way he saw RapeLay before he said that.

The murder isn't the point it's the heroic rapist claim which is pure Daily Mail shit.

[Anonymous No.6550300]

>>6550276

This is it. Zizek is a fucking liar, no better than Roger Scruton.

[Anonymous No.6550301]

>>6550294
just realized i couldnt think of a single other game with rape besides rapelay

[Anonymous No.6550308]

>>6550301
>>>/gamergate/
I'm the SJWs

[Anonymous No.6550309]

>>6549657
>frecuently
you retarded, friend?

[Anonymous No.6550312]

>>6550309
>namedropps
He might be having a stroke :---(

[Anonymous No.6550319]

>>6550297
If you enjoy playing Call of Duty, you are enjoying being a murder, on the screen at least. Zizek simply claims, that the real self is the one that desires for the rape, and the public persona is a fake. it's just a very simple psychoanalytic point, sperg.

[Anonymous No.6550322]

>>6548324
>What is academic response to zizek?
Inexistent. He's more a public figure (therefore with certain influence among political groups in the university) than a researcher.

My ethics teacher mentioned his briefly a few months ago "(...) it's important to be careful when you read about ethics, and political and social theory, there are a lots of hacks in these areas... I don't want to name any names... Zizêk for example... who among others hold positions that don't give proper answer when anyone inquiry about his claims and are based on very criticized lacanian and marxist premises".

[Anonymous No.6550325]

>>6550308
i dont understand what youre trying to say but im getting the impression youre a cunt

[Anonymous No.6550328]

>>6550325
Thanks m8, in some cultures that's a compliment :^)

[Anonymous No.6550332]

>>6550322
>ethics

stopped right there, mate.

[Anonymous No.6550334]

>>6550328
Damn...kangaroos are swole

[Anonymous No.6550339]

>>6550332
>implying there's something wrong with ethics

[Anonymous No.6550340]

>>6550319

It's an invalid point in a documentary about cinema based on decades-discredited bullshit. I don't even have any interest in FPSs. Why are you trying to sass me because I pointed out you're imbibing the Tab cola of critical theory?

[Anonymous No.6550432]

>>6550213
Someone has to be pretty ignorant of philosophy to say
>there aren't
so confidently.

[Anonymous No.6550454]

>>6550432

Someone has to be pretty ignorant of culture to think the facts don't matter.

[Anonymous No.6550465]

He never came up in my undergrad philosophy courses and I took a lot of them.

[Anonymous No.6551924]

>>6550322
>Inexistent

[Anonymous No.6552018]

Academic response to Zizek in certain European countries and especially the US is cowardly dismissive with minimal exceptions. Ask any philosophy "professor" about Zizek and they'll cry about how he hurt his idol and savior Chomsky's feelings.

Anywhere to the east of the UK you'd get better discussion to develop an opinion on him. His works are mainly seen as a pseudo-combination of Hegel's and Lacan's, although any Hegel or Lacan reader would tell you that he got their ideas "wrong". Shouldn't diminish from the quality of his ideas though, but don't judge him by his categorization.

[Anonymous No.6552030]

>>6549689
>sentencing people to gulags
Zizek spotted

[Anonymous No.6552043]

>>6552018

When I applied for a professorship at Colorado State Uni, I checked the bookstore to get an idea of what books people were teaching in the department. One of profs had a zizek book on his curriculum.

[Anonymous No.6552045]

>>6552018
>Ask any philosophy "professor" about Zizek and they'll cry about how he hurt his idol and savior Chomsky's feelings.
I don't think any part of this sentence is true

[Anonymous No.6552048]

>>6552018
>although any Hegel or Lacan reader would tell you that he got their ideas "wrong". Shouldn't diminish from the quality of his ideas though
Too bad it does. His ideas aren't very good to begin with.

[Anonymous No.6552051]

>>6549904

>implying Marx deserved it.

[Anonymous No.6552065]

>>6548360
I think we all know who the ultimate anti-philosopher is

[Anonymous No.6552132]

Zizek is pretty based but I don't know about psychoanalysis.

[Anonymous No.6552195]

>>6548346
dude wtf is your problem close your tabs man jesus christ.

[Anonymous No.6552197]

>>6548430
how does one find something new to say when everything of importance has already been said?

[Anonymous No.6552291]

>>6548346
>[e-mail]

I kek'd.

[Anonymous No.6553656]

>>6548324
COMMIE
O
M
M
I
E

[Anonymous No.6553665]

>>6548512
kek

[Anonymous No.6553819]

>>6550319
I would argue that thats in relation to the world around you. I might desire to be a good husband but the realities of relationships won't allow me to. I might wan to bend a girl over and fuck her because I see no value in her but I don't. I can want both but I can only do one without somehow ruining the other. Everyone wants everything at the same time all the time. It doesn't say much.

[Anonymous No.6553840]

>>6549752
>>6552195