Is it not vaguely obscene to be asked to cough up $20 to go and listen to Žižek at the Sydney Opera House trying to ‘renovate communism’? And this from a liberal opponent, back in the 80s, of the socialist government in Yugoslovia.
Reminds me of a backhanded compliment from Badiou:
Let me begin by refuting, as I usually do, your reputation as a showman and a conceptual poseur – a very French misrepresentation (but let’s not worry that they said the same thing about our master Lacan).
1 September, 2011 at 12:20 pm
I’m going! If you’re going let me know – currently I’m going as a loner. (all my lefty political friends being at the ecosocialism conference in melbourne that weekend)
2 September, 2011 at 9:03 am
Nah, last time I heard him he merely told jokes (mostly borrowed from Freud). Then one of the organisers told me that if you pay him $2000, he”ll tell a few jokes; if you pay him $10,000, he’ll give a serious lecture.
2 September, 2011 at 7:42 pm
And what a serious lecture by Žižek be like?
The first book of his I read Immediately made me realise the truth of the joke:
What do you get when you cross a sociologist with a mafiosa? An offer you can’t understand.
2 September, 2011 at 5:54 pm
Deane, stop pretending to be different people all the time.
3 September, 2011 at 7:02 pm
My pleasure.
I don’t have coffee much these days, I find too exciting. However, the next time I have a cup I will drink it in your honour.
If you go to the meeting, please be careful. In the UK people who throw custard pies get arrested and thrown into gaol.
6 September, 2011 at 1:27 pm
A mate has a spare ticket so I’ll be able to enjoy his showmanship in person.
3 October, 2011 at 11:03 pm
[...] someone else’s twenty bucks well spent. For bonus lisped anecdotes, he’s testing Tony Jones’s mettle on Q&A right now. [...]