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casparb's review against another edition
4.0
This was one of the most alarmingly complex books I've read in any recent time. Žižek is quite merciless at springing from Hegel to Lacan, back and forth such that the reader is just about able to keep their head above the surface. I don't entirely blame the big Z - Lacan is extraordinarily complex (to say nothing of Hegel), and I think Žižek is genuinely trying to make it comprehensible. It's not to be understood on a first read. But those brief moments where the sunlight gets through - something clicks into place - are viscerally satisfying.
I'm aware that I'm something of a stuck record but I found Graham here too. This is, I think, the most spectacular aspect of reading silly books like this one - even in the most convoluted areas he can be found. That makes this sort of thing entirely worth the effort.
I'm aware that I'm something of a stuck record but I found Graham here too. This is, I think, the most spectacular aspect of reading silly books like this one - even in the most convoluted areas he can be found. That makes this sort of thing entirely worth the effort.
bradach's review against another edition
4.0
If you like Hegel, you'll like this guy. If you don’t like Hegel, you might appreciate him more after reading Zizek anyway. I read this thinking it would build to some kind of clear-cut consensus, instead of just kind of a bunch of ideas and thought experiments that can be understood and made sense of but I just don't see the practical use besides: Ideology is dangerous. Basically my takeaway from this book is that we need to be aware of what reality is (the Real) vs what we want it to be through our fantasy (linked to our ideology) connected to the symbolic order. Ideology never works because it oversimplifies and results in our needing to create a scapegoat for the wrong in society, ala antisemitism in the case of fascist ideology. This scapegoat is not actually Real but is needed for the ideology itself to exist. This is a great primer to the psychology of ideology, but I think Zizek’s explanation is far more confusing that it actually is, although I especially appreciate all of his links between Lacanian psychoanalysis and modern culture. I don’t think I’d read this book again but we’ll see.
ethandickler's review against another edition
I heard his sniffling Slovenian accent the entire time in my head and I don’t think it will ever leave now. I *may* try Phenomenology of Spirit now so I can understand the last 3 chapters.
books_ergo_sum's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
If a philosophy book says, “it is Jane Austen who is perhaps the only counterpart to Hegel in literature,” then it is 100% speaking my language.
How to describe what this book is about.. 😆 It’s an indispensable book if you want to learn about politics, ideology, and human freedom (bad news on that one: you might be less free than you think). To use another Žižek quote: “I already am eating from the trash can all the time—and the name of that trash can is: ideology.” Ultimately, it’s not philosophers like Habermas that have the answers to this problem. For Žižek, we need to look at Hegel, Lacan and Freud, and Althusser. And Marx, you can come too.
I’m personally most passionate about Hegelian philosophy and Žižek highlighted Hegel’s best points imo: a focus on language, the way the earlier sections in a Hegel text are ‘errors’ that are negated yet preserved in later parts, and how philosophy can’t jump right away to Truth (and how too-positivist interpretations of Hegel misunderstand his project).
❤️ Sidenote for my romance reading peeps: I absolutely loved Žižek’s comparison between Jane Austen and Hegel and it made me realize that my favourite romance novels all contain the same thing: a Hegelian moment of misrecognition. That is, a romance that contains just as much personal growth as interpersonal connection between the MCs because of their co-constitutive identities. Because enemies to lovers, opposites attract, culture clash, etc. says just as much about how the characters perceives themselves as it does about how they perceive each other. And that’s why the swooniest romance plots have the most compelling character arcs 🥰
That said, I love me some strong thesis statements, which I didn’t always get in this book. Also it contained less of the jokes, anecdotes, and informal writing style of Žižek’s later works—yet I found it drier without being necessarily clearer, which was meh.
How to describe what this book is about.. 😆 It’s an indispensable book if you want to learn about politics, ideology, and human freedom (bad news on that one: you might be less free than you think). To use another Žižek quote: “I already am eating from the trash can all the time—and the name of that trash can is: ideology.” Ultimately, it’s not philosophers like Habermas that have the answers to this problem. For Žižek, we need to look at Hegel, Lacan and Freud, and Althusser. And Marx, you can come too.
I’m personally most passionate about Hegelian philosophy and Žižek highlighted Hegel’s best points imo: a focus on language, the way the earlier sections in a Hegel text are ‘errors’ that are negated yet preserved in later parts, and how philosophy can’t jump right away to Truth (and how too-positivist interpretations of Hegel misunderstand his project).
❤️ Sidenote for my romance reading peeps: I absolutely loved Žižek’s comparison between Jane Austen and Hegel and it made me realize that my favourite romance novels all contain the same thing: a Hegelian moment of misrecognition. That is, a romance that contains just as much personal growth as interpersonal connection between the MCs because of their co-constitutive identities. Because enemies to lovers, opposites attract, culture clash, etc. says just as much about how the characters perceives themselves as it does about how they perceive each other. And that’s why the swooniest romance plots have the most compelling character arcs 🥰
That said, I love me some strong thesis statements, which I didn’t always get in this book. Also it contained less of the jokes, anecdotes, and informal writing style of Žižek’s later works—yet I found it drier without being necessarily clearer, which was meh.
nmaltec's review against another edition
5.0
Definitely going to need to re-read this, but for now... cool exposition of materialist ideology à la Lacan... can’t say I knew a whole lot about any of these three before reading but now I feel at least semi-equipped to dive further into their respective depths...