Product Description

The Parallax View is Slavoj Zizek's most substantial theoretical work to appear in many years; Zizek himself describes it as his magnum opus. Parallax can be defined as the apparent displacement of an object, caused by a change in observational position. Zizek is interested in the "parallax gap" separating two points between which no synthesis or mediation is possible, linked by an "impossible short circuit" of levels that can never meet. From this consideration of parallax, Zizek begins a rehabilitation of dialectical materialism.

Modes of parallax can be seen in different domains of today's theory, from the wave-particle duality in quantum physics to the parallax of the unconscious in Freudian psychoanalysis between interpretations of the formation of the unconscious and theories of drives. In The Parallax View, Zizek, with his usual astonishing erudition, focuses on three main modes of parallax: the ontological difference, the ultimate parallax that conditions our very access to reality; the scientific parallax, the irreducible gap between the phenomenal experience of reality and its scientific explanation, which reaches its apogee in today's brain sciences (according to which "nobody is home" in the skull, just stacks of brain meat—a condition Zizek calls "the unbearable lightness of being no one"); and the political parallax, the social antagonism that allows for no common ground. Between his discussions of these three modes, Zizek offers interludes that deal with more specific topics—including an ethical act in a novel by Henry James and anti-anti-Semitism.

The Parallax View not only expands Zizek's Lacanian-Hegelian approach to new domains (notably cognitive brain sciences) but also provides the systematic exposition of the conceptual framework that underlies his entire work. Philosophical and theological analysis, detailed readings of literature, cinema, and music coexist with lively anecdotes and obscene jokes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20411 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 528 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A Lacanian-Hegelian philosopher and pop culture critic who divides his time between America and Slovenia, Zizek is one of the few living writers to combine theoretical rigor with compulsive readability, and his new volume provides perhaps the clearest elaboration of his theoretical framework thus far. Expatiating on such subjects as Heidegger, neuroscience, the war on terror and The Matrix, he seeks to rehabilitate dialectical materialism by replacing the popular "yin-yang" interpretation (the struggle between opposites that ultimately form a whole) with a theory of the "gap which separates the One from itself." One example is a tribe whose two subgroups draw mutually exclusive plans of their village: their deadlock "implies a hidden reference to a constant... an imbalance in social relations that prevented the community from stabilizing itself into a harmonious whole." Discussing Abu Ghraib and pedophilia in the Catholic Church, Zizek explores how an ideological edifice is sustained by underground transgressions: "Law can be sustained only by a sovereign power which reserves for itself the right... to suspend the rule of law(s) on behalf of the Law itself." Based on his interpretation of Lacanian psychoanalysis, he envisions a society in which public law would no longer sustain itself through its own obscene breach. This challenging book takes us on a roller-coaster ride whose every loop is a Möbius strip. (Apr.)
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Review
"Frankly, a magnum opus is exactly what Zizek needs right now.... The Parallax View consolidates Zizek's work as a whole and decisively moves it forward."
— In These Times

"In this huge, thrilling book, Slavoj Zizek enacts a dazzling display of philosophy as performance art, delighting in upsetting readers' expectations, inserting sly jokes, and castigating the 'boring' political analyses of just about everyone.... Zizek is a thinker who regards nothing as outside his field: the result is deeply interesting and provocative."
— The Guardian

"Zizek is one of the few living writers to combine theoretical rigor with compulsive readability, and his new volume provides perhaps the clearest elaboration of his theoretical framework thus far....This challenging book takes us on a roller-coaster ride whose every loop is a Möbius strip."
— Publishers Weekly

About the Author
Slavoj Zizek is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Codirector of the Center for Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London.

Customer Reviews

the gaping parallax
"Noncoincidence of the One itself" represents more of the same from an academic who keeps refusing to acknowledge that he is getting ever fatter, older and more timid. The endless references to other artists & philosophers do not help the reader to access meaningful knowledge - they obfuscate it. In other words, Zizek's provocations are a mask, a simulacrum for courage with which one is to face the (a) real world.

This book may be a yet another cynical and perhaps nihilistic attempt at cheating Oneself through dazzling the Others. Its fundamental lack of cojones is... disappointing.

Food for thought
Enjoyable as it is to read Zizek (the table of contents is itself a work of art), the inflation of 180 degree turns (" in fact, the EXACT OPPOSITE is the case / is the better interpretation) and the phrase "this is PRECISELY what Lacan meant with .....", makes it impossible to give more than 4 stars.

Though there is a certain emptiness / lack of practical implications in Zizek's writings (which he defends in terms of refusing to provide the Left with "the formula" they demand, instead using his fame to position himself as object a, frustrating our demands), it should be noted that he definitely penetrates deeply into the field of political thinking, too, and he has made me revise some of my opinions about Scandinavian social democracy.

Very insightful
It's a synthesis in Zizek's trajectory, but also it opens his work toward new discussions