Žižek And So On

This week, the gang discusses Zizek’s 2008 work Violence: wherein a girl gets a dragon tattoo, Pete gets mystical, and it rains again in Australia. For access to our patron episodes and to join our Discord server:  https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon

We're live with They Live—our episode on Žižek's famous interpretation of John Carpenter's wonderful 1988 film. We touch on Ž's points concerning "the glasses" of the critique of ideology versus the conventional notion of ideology—the rose colored glasses. We also think about the film as a Žižekian example, and push an interpretation of the film's alien beings as the "figure of" ideology. To hear the full episode, subscribe to our Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon

For this week's episode the gang discuss Alenka Zupančič’s recent work on freedom-as-a-possibility, repetition, and The End. Jake gets a haircut, Will touches Marx’s chair, it rains in Australia and Pete has a lousy connection.  To subscribe to this and other patron episodes, and to join our powerful Discord server: click here

For the return to the PATREONhttps://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon episodes the fellas discuss Žižek’s writing on Lacan’s notion of “the letter always arriving at its destination”. For Žižek, the letter’s destination becomes a descriptive model triad of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real, and how the three concepts interact. In this episode, & So On explore’s the subject’s interpellation and misrecognition, contemplates Moby Dick, and questions the actuality of the dental dam. To subscribe to this and other patron episodes: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon To read along: https://www.lacan.com/symptom16/why.html

The fellas are back—and are accompanied by a new member. We dive into two recent articles from the Philosophical Salon. The first is by Fabio Vighi, who charges Žižek with capitulating too easily to new forms of social domination with his acceptance of lockdowns. Vighi argues that we now live “in a neo-feudal inferno where our Lords enslave us in order to protect us, and protect us in order to enslave us.” In his response, Žižek charges Vighi with missing the crucial lesson that the “brutal reality of the pandemic [is] a contingent event,” not some mega-plot knowingly developed and orchestrated by the establishment. The argument laid out by Vighi is, Žižek argues, dangerously close to a paranoid conspiracy theory. Following Žižek, we discuss how Vighi’s position is maintained by the fantasy of a consistent ordering of the antagonism at the heart of the social and the symbolic order. Yes, we’re back. Thanks to all our listeners, new and old, and our patrons who have stuck with us during our hiatus. More to come! Episode reading: Vighi: SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK, EMERGENCY CAPITALISM, AND THE CAPITULATION OF THE LEFT ; Žižek: LES NON-DUPES ERRENT

The lads compare notes on Freudian-Lacanian-Zizekian concept of the death drive.  For access to the full episode and many more: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lydBPm2KRaU&ab_channel=carrieunderwoodVEVO

This week, we talk Žižek’s concept of the Neighbor. In contrast with Levinas’ ethics of the Other, Žižek understands the neighbour to be the site of a kind of inhuman monstrosity. We ask: who are we to speak, who are you to listen? Žižek’s text: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo16265666.html For more episodes, join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon

UNLOCKED PATREON EPISODE: Žižek on the politics of psychoanalysis—with reference to Gabriel Tupinambá's new book "The Desire of Psychoanalysis", the limits of Lacan, the crazy philosophy of the Ljubljana school, women and Hegel, and his upcoming works: ecology and Marx (and Hegel), and living and dying in a topsy-turvy world etc. Then some final remarks on television shows and Rammstein. Join us on patreon for extra episodes and a happening discord server: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon

Part ONE of our interview with Slavoj Žižek. Covid & philosophy; why we need "War Communism" &... Join us on patreon to hear more episodes, and the upcoming second part— https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon

Patreon Preview - Better late than never, we take on Zizek's 2019 book "The Relevance of the Communist Manifesto''. We discuss how the Manifesto falls short in diagnosing the antagonisms of capitalism in its current iteration, yet also retains its ability to open up a relevant critique of capitalism. The limitations of the text identified by Zizek are problematized by contemporary features of capitalism he insists are crucial for understanding our predicament today—namely, the problem of (the privatization of) the commons, and the failure of the revolutionary subject to present itself.  Also, Foucault is cancelled. https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon