Chronicle of Higher Education - June 4, 2004
Zizek Watch Third in a series tracking a seemingly ubiquitous thinker.
By SCOTT McLEMEE
One source of Slavoj Zizek's lasting appeal as a cultural theorist is that he provides a really good excuse to go to the video store. Readers work their way through any given book or essay by Mr. Zizek with a sure sense that, sooner or later, he will interrupt his Lacanian interrogation of Hegel's critique of the categorical imperative for an analysis of, say, an Alfred Hitchcock film. Last year Mr. Zizek suggested that the police state in Steven Spielberg's film Minority Report -- in which sci-fi technology allows crimes to be solved before they are perpetrated -- followed the same logic as the Bush administration's policy in Iraq.
Indeed, Mr. Zizek himself has indicated that a regular viewing of preposterous Hollywood blockbusters is one of the secrets of his own productivity. The deep boredom induced by watching Bruce Willis run from an exploding fireball encourages the scholar to reflect on questions of cultural theory.
But soon, Mr. Zizek will go from watching movies to starring in one. Astra Taylor, who until this semester was an adjunct in sociology, has just finished shooting a film about him.
Contacted by Zizek Watch in late March, Ms. Taylor was about to head to Slovenia for a final round of interviews. "So far we have hung out with Zizek on the East Coast ... but gone also to Buenos Aires, where the crowds were amazing -- over 2,000 people in the University Square, an electrified mob," she wrote by e-mail. "I am focusing on his philosophy and personality equally (his personality demands this!)," she said. Her ambition is "to give the viewer a sense of Zizek's overarching project" -- which also involves explaining "who the hell Lacan is." Ms. Taylor expects her film to be finished this year.
Not that the Zizek aficionado need wait that long for an excuse to fire up the home entertainment system. Producing the documentary is Lawrence Konner, a veteran Hollywood screenwriter whose credits include Mona Lisa Smile, the remake of Planet of the Apes, and three episodes of The Sopranos. And if you really need a break from looking up Mr. Zizek's references to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, rent Mr. Konner's big-screen adaptation of The Beverly Hillbillies.