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A review by books_ergo_sum
The Sublime Object of Ideology by Slavoj Žižek
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.