"As a reader of Zizek most of this is covered in other books.
In Defense of Lost Causes immediately comes to mind. But if you don't want to slough through a 500 page tome but want to look at the latest political reflections by Slavoj Zizek then this book is a good introduction.[...]" November 24, 2009 amazon.com
"This might very well be the best place to start if you're interested in the politics of this singular Slovenian philosopher. The prose here is as trenchant and as pellucid as it gets- it is clear that Zizek regards this polemic as a conjunctural intervention, and its topicality (much of the text deals with the current financial meltdown) is unparalleled in his oeuvre. Perhaps the closest parallel that one can draw is to Zizek's text on the Iraq War, Welcome to the Desert of the Real. This does mean, however, that one should not approach the text expecting to find a cursory sketch of Zizek's philosophy. Consider this to be an hors d'oeuvre of sorts. If you survive the naked forthrightness of Zizek's approach- his greatest challenge to our postmodern sensibilities lies in his uninhibited resolve to say what he means with a naïveté that is unprecedented since Nietzsche and Marx- you are already on the way to engaging with one of today's great provocateurs. The crucial point of the text lies in Zizek's classically Marxist assertion that, contrary to its (ideological) self-image as the embodiment of `objective reality' (capitalism as a pragmatic, time-tested formula that works in the `real world'), capitalism is, in fact, driven by a utopian fantasy of its own, the truth of which is revealed in crashes and meltdowns. The `crisis of the Left' lies in its incapacity to formulate a viable alternative, a crisis that must be overcome through commitment (allegiance to what Badiou has called the `communist hypothesis') and concerted hegemonic struggle." October 12, 2009 amazon.com
"Zizek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized,
and is maser of the counterintuitive observation."
THE NEW YORKER
"The Elvis of cultural theory."
CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
"One of the most innovative and exiting
contemporary thinkers of the left"
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT"
WARNUNG:
Dies war mein erster Zizek und was soll ich sagen...
Meine Weltsicht ist zusammengebrochen und ich will MEHR!