Harshing on Slavoj Žižek

It's been a while here since I've complained about how irritating I find the contemporary philosopher Slavoj Žižek.

Slavoj Žižek, 2009

So I'll take this opportunity to catch up.

Because I came across a review by someone who's much better informed than I on philosophy who apparently finds Žižek irritating in much the same way I do.

That's Peter Bürger in a review titled "Slavoj rennt" [Slavoj runs] Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 50:3 (2002), a review of a German edition of Žižek's book The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology: "Will der Autor sich bloB interessant machen, indem er eine aparte Position einnimmt, oder meint er, was er sagt?" ("Does the author [Žižek] want to make himself interesting by holding a distinctive position, or does he mean what he says?")

That question in itself captures my general reaction to Žižek.

He expands on it in the concluding sentences of the review:

Ist Žižeks unendliche Rede, die nie an einen Ruhepunkt gelangt, die Bruchstücke der Tradition aufnimmt, sie mit Filmszenen und Anekdoten assoziiert, ist sie nicht Ausdruck eben jener Hyperaktivität, die er als postmodern kritisiert? Statt die eigene Zeit in Gedanken zu fassen, erfasst die Zeit seine Gedanken und treibt sie im Wirbel vor sich her, und ihm bleibt nichts anderes übrig, als ihnen atemlos hinterherzulaufen.

[In Žižek's endless speech, that never arrives at a resting point, that incorporates fragments of tradition, associating them with film scenes and anecdotes, is it not an expression of that hyperactivity the he criticizes as postmodern? Instead of grasping his own time in thought, time seizes his thought and drive it along in a swirl in front of it, and nothing is left but for him to run along breathlessly after it.]

Well put.

Tags: slavoj žižek