Žižek And So On

Listen to the full episode on our patreon: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon We're back with Jack Black. More on Lacanian theory and comedy, with examples ranging from the Black Eyed Peas to Philomena Cunk. We begin with discussing celebrity and false comedy, and later engage (again) with covid and conspiracy theory. We also get the dish on Jack's favourite premier league team, interpassivity and sports, and decide, once and for all, that the Matrix surpasses Blade Runner as the paradigmatic film for Žižekian theory. More on that soon.

This week, the fellas are joined by Jack Black, Senior Lecturer at Centre for Culture, Media and Society, Sheffield Hallam University. Oriented around Jack's new book, 'Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy' (Routledge), we talk 'true' and 'false' comedy, the concrete universal, the Office, and racist jokes. Thanks Jack! Get the book: https://www.routledge.com/Race-Racism-and-Political-Correctness-in-Comedy-A-Psychoanalytic-Exploration/Black/p/book/9780367508937 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jackstblack

We're talking Jesus Christ, Žižek's Christian Atheism, and Christmas. How do Christ and God figure in Žižek's work? Is God Dead? Also, the Big (m)Other. From the pod to you, merry Christmas—especially to the atheists. Thanks to all our listeners.  https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon Reading this week:  "The Deposed God" from Disparities

This week, reading through Rex Butler's 'Slavoj Zizek: Live Theory,' the fellas talk the Master Signifier and Jaws, and somehow devolve into a Lacanian interpretation of Austin Powers.  Join our Patreon for more eps! https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon The Book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek-live-theory-9780826469953/

For our patreon subscribers: https://www.patreon.com/zizekandsoon After a harrowing month, we reassemble to reassess the assemblage of today's capitalism. But first, have you seen the new Beatles doc? In a recent article, Zizek has used the term "neofeudalism" to describe new dynamics of capitalism. We go back to the source for this terminology—an article by Jodi Dean—and discuss whether the term is more useful in diagnosing features of political economy than (a critique of) capitalism. Then we move on to Zizek's recent article in Philosophical salon and talk about water fountains, Bane, China, and continuing a critique of capitalism that keeps up with new and emergent forces. More to come very soon! Thanks to all our patrons for supporting and listening. Articles: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/neofeudalism-the-end-of-capitalism/ https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/beyond-a-neoconservative-communism/

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