Lecture in Vermont

A Pervert’s Guide to Slavoj Žižek

http://www.norwichfilmfestival.co.uk/a-perverts-guide-to-slavoj-zizek

Words: Jack Brindelli

Speaking frankly, as is his custom, Slavoj Žižek said in a 2011 Guardian interview, “most of the left hates me even though I am supposed to be one of the world’s leading communist intellectuals.” Two years on, with the DVD release of The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, the shape of the British left might be changing (the SWP who fiercely criticised him for his words on an old Russian proverb regarding the horrors of rape, have effectively collapsed because of their actions regarding rape accusations in their own party) but the collective disdain remains. And whilst of course, we should always be willing to have conversations with even the loftiest of figures when they take problematic lines on any subject, there is something opportunistic about the way the orthodox left have approached this in writing off Žižek and his methods entirely.

In his previous screen outing, The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, Žižek looked at the implications of Chaplin’s Great Dictator on anti-fascism, utilised the Marx brothers to explain Freudian theory, and usedThe Matrix to illustrate how illusion and reality may often be inextricably linked. If it is possible to believe, his latest project is even grander. This time, Žižek turns his unique brand of philosophy and theatrical panache on deconstructing ‘common sense’ ideas and exposing them as constructs of capitalist ideology.

From sitting aboard a plane bound for Nazi Germany in a Riefenstahl propaganda piece, to staging his own icy death in Titanic, the Slovenian radical makes his sequel engaging and often hilarious. He examines everything from the London riots to Rammstein gigs, in order to show how ideology shapes our world, and how it might be challenged. By looking into the assumptions and contradictions of widely known and loved culture, he not only flags up “the dictatorship in liberal democracy”, but creates an accessible framework for doing so – so that people who didn’t come out of the womb clutching a copy of Kapital might even find it interesting!

So why does the man remain so polarising to the left? Observing the widespread snobbery directed at Russell Brand after his now infamous Paxman interview, it is perhaps easy to work out why the left’s hostility toward Žižek persists. It seems for a broad swathe of the left’s hierarchy, socialism, the ideology of the ordinary people, is conversely not something that should be easily accessible. It’s a position you should arrive at after intense study of voluminous texts and hyper verbose, po-faced lecturing. So when somebody cracks jokes whilst arguing for radical change, or when somebody uses film and popular culture to explain Marxism to the masses, they are often charged with a “lack of genuine analysis” and with trivialising the almost sacred institution of dusty academia.

But this is precisely what makes Žižek so compelling to watch – and so important as a philosopher. He has a fantastic grasp of Lacanian jargon, well-honed anti-capitalist rhetoric and all the fashion sense of a blind, inebriate Oxbridge Professor. And yet, he doesn’t play it safe, consigning himself to some buttoned down monastery like so many other leftist thinkers. On the contrary, he continuously enters realms of mass culture to interface with millions of people, many of whom may totally disagree.

His work often delves into areas considered too vulgar for other Marxist academics to dirty their hands with. The established left commonly write these subjects off as “bourgeois distraction” at the best of times, preferring instead the safety of the academic enclave, or engage with them as a token gesture at worst, with ‘working man speak’ in their papers mirroring the Mockney of Chas and Dave. Yet cinema, sport, music, comedy, these contain ample opportunities to challenge the economic system that is the base of these aspects of civil society – and to do so on a level millions of people can relate to.

What Žižek shows us, is that things like cinema do embody many ideological myths that we are brought up within capitalism thinking to be natural occurrences, to be ‘reality’. Obviously it is not enough to simply point to the fallacies before you expect revolution. However, lefties the world over should be engaging with and analysing mass entertainment rather than avoiding it! Because when they do, it becomes a tool to show these constructs for what they are – no more natural than the fictions flickering across a screen. From there, anything can be challenged.

JOKES

Do you hate your job?

There’s a support group for that.

It’s called everybody.

And it meets at the bar.

—Drew Carey

Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day…

Is that fair to anyone who’s alone?

Those are all days when you’ve got to be with someone.

If you didn’t get around to killing yourself during Christmas or New Year’s,

Boom! There’s Valentine’s Day.

I think there should be one more holiday after Valentine’s Day,

just for the stragglers.

And it should be called “Who Could Love You?”

—Laura Kightlinger

A doctor tells a guy, “I have bad news.

You have Alzheimer’s, and you have cancer.”

Guy says, “Thank God I don’t have cancer.”

—Roseanne

I like parties, but I don’t like piñatas

because the piñata promotes violence

against flamboyant animals.

“Hey, there’s a donkey with some pizzazz.

Let’s kick its ass.”

What I’m trying to say is,

don’t make the same

Halloween costume mistake that I did.

—Demetri Martin

You don’t know anything about pain

until you’ve seen your own baby drown in a tub.

And you definitely don’t know anything

about how to wash a baby.

—Anthony Jeselnik

A BRUNETTE, A REDHEAD & A BLONDE all worked in the same office with the same female boss. Every day, they noticed their boss left work early.

One day, the girls decided that when the boss left, they'd leave right behind her. After all, she never called in or came back to the office when she left early, so how was she to know?

The next day, they all three left the office right after the boss left. The brunette was thrilled to be home early. She did a little gardening and went to bed early.

The redhead was elated to be able to get in a quick workout at the health club before meeting her dinner date.

The blonde was happy, happy, happy to be home, but when she got to the bedroom she heard a muffled noise from inside. Slowly, quietly, she cracked open the door and was mortified to see her husband in bed with HER BOSS.

Ever so gently, she closed the door and crept out of her house. The next day at coffee break, the brunette and redhead decided they were leaving early again, and asked the blonde if she was coming with them.

"NO WAY," she exclaimed, "I almost got caught yesterday"

I went on a job interview.

The lady asked me if I’d pass a drug test.

I said, “Yeah, if it’s written.”

Then she was like, “You’re going to need to pee in a cup.”

I said, “I’m going to need a month to study for it.”

I also joined a gym recently.

The guy who showed me around was so excited it was open 24 hours.

He was like, “You can work out at 3:00 in the morning!”

I told him, “Dude, if you see me in here at 3:00 am, call an ambulance,

because I’ve been trapped under a piece of equipment for several hours.”

—Gary Vider

Donald Trump is not just a rich man.

He’s what a hobo imagines a rich man to be.

It’s like Trump was walking through an alley

and he heard a guy living there say,

“Boy oh boy. As soon as my number comes in,

I’m going to put up tall buildings with my name on them.

I’ll have fine golden hair.

And a TV show where I fire people with my children.”

And Trump said, “That is how I will live my life.

Thank you, hobo, for that life plan.”

I bet whenever Trump has to make a decision,

he asks himself, “What would a cartoon rich person do?”

Put up billboards with your face everywhere? That’s a good idea.

Donald Trump won’t run for President.

He’ll just announce one day that he is President.

—John Mulaney

By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing…kill yourself.

No, no, it’s simply a little thought.

I’m just trying to plant seeds.

Maybe one day, they’ll take root—I don’t know.

You try, you do what you can.

Kill yourself.

Seriously, though. If you are, do.

There’s no rationalization for what you do

and you are Satan’s little helpers.

Kill yourself—seriously.

You are the ruiner of all things good.

No, this is not a joke.

You’re going, “There’s going to be a joke coming.”

There’s no fucking joke coming.

You are Satan’s spawn

filling the world with bile and garbage.

You are fucked, and you are fucking us.

Kill yourself—seriously.

It’s the only way to save your fucking soul.

Kill yourself.

Planting seeds.

I know all the marketing people are going, “He’s doing a joke.”

There’s no joke here whatsoever.

Suck a tailpipe, fucking hang yourself, borrow a gun.

I don’t care how you do it.

Rid the world of your evil fucking makinations.

Machi…Whatever, you know what I mean.

I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now.

“Oh, you know what Bill’s doing,

he’s going for that anti-marketing dollar.

That’s a good market, he’s very smart.”

Oh man, I am not doing that, you fucking evil scumbags!

“Ooh, you know what Bill’s doing now,

he’s going for the righteous indignation dollar.

That’s a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation.

We’ve done research—huge market. He’s doing a good thing.”

Goddamn it, I’m not doing that, you scumbags!

Quit putting a goddamn dollar sign

on every fucking thing on this planet!

“Ooh, the anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession.

Giant market. Bill’s very bright to do that.”

God, I’m just caught in a fucking web.

“Ooh, the trapped dollar. Big dollar, huge dollar.

Good market. Look at our research.

We see that many people feel trapped.

If we play to that and then separate them into the trapped dollar…”

How do you live like that?

And I bet you sleep like fucking babies at night, don’t you?

“What didya do today, honey?”

“Oh, we made, ah, we made, ah, arsenic

a childhood food now, goodnight.” (snores)

“Yeah, we just said, you know, is your baby

too loud? You know?” (snores)

“Yeah, you know the mums will love it.” (snores)

Sleep like fucking children, don’t ya?

This is really your world, isn’t it?

—Bill Hicks

Marx was right

"One must endure -- become hard, toughen oneself -- without losing tenderness."

Trotsky quotes?

“Spread love and understanding. Use force if necessary.”

“If you cannot acquaint a fascist with reason, you must acquaint his head with the sidewalk.”

[See Never Go Back, by Lee Child (pp. 193-4).  Even if Trotsky never exactly said both of these things, the novelist Lee Child is doing something right!]