Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Neo doesn't exist, neither do Žižek or MeWithoutYou

Gotta love Žižek..

For one, he's officially  an atheist who is insistent that Christianity is worth defending.

For two,  he says  (here) he is actually worried about people who can pronounce his name correctly.
(It's refreshing, especially when in academic circles there is such snobbery re: those who use legitmate Anglicized pronunciations.  But indeed, how many know that Kierkegaard is supposed to be "KEER-kuh-gore?  I wouldn't know that if not for Jerry Walls...uh, that's pronounced "WALLS")
Yes, I know it's hard to know when he's serious...maybe he's simply always honest.

For three, I have marked at least four places in  just one small chapter  where it sounds like he's been listening to U2 (That post tomorrow)

Third...he says the problem with the Matrix film is not that it goes too far, but that it doesn't go far enough..

..the thesis of The Matrix is that this big Other is externalized in the really existing Mega-Computer. There is - there HAS to be - a Matrix because "things are not right, opportunities are missed, something goes wrong all the time," i.e. the film's idea is that it is so because there is the Matrix that obfuscates the "true" reality that is behind it all. Consequently, the problem with the film is that it is NOT "crazy" enough, because it supposes another "real" reality behind our everyday reality sustained by the Matrix. However, to avoid the fatal misunderstanding: the inverse notion that "all there is is generated by the Matrix," that there is NO ultimate reality, just the infinite series of virtual realities mirroring themselves in each other, is no less ideological.
-The Matrix, or, the Two Sides of Perversion By Slavoj Zizek

Later:
However, it is here that, again, the film does not go far enough: in the memorable scene in the waiting room of the prophetess who will decide if Neo is the One, a child who is seen twisting a spoon with his mere thoughts tells the surprised Neo that the way to do it is not point is not to convince myself that I can twist the spoon, but to convince myself that THERE IS NO SPOON... However, what about MYSELF? Is it not that the further step should have been to accept the Buddhist proposition that I MYSELF, the subject, do not exist -The Matrix, or, the Two Sides of Perversion By Slavoj Zizek

Note: on this theme, try the fascinating "worship song"  by   Mewithoutyou :  "I do not exist.  Only You exist."   At first listen, many of us want to (have been trained to) cringe at the apparent and "obvious" New Age/Buddhist theology... But is a version of this true?   Just check out the fans at  this Christian festival starting to believe it as they dance it:;  3;50ff  here:


6:22ff...how in the world did this unorthodox orthodox notiion get past the gatekeepers(:  ?

I thought I was Neo (or was it Keanu Reeves dancing at that gig!
Maybe also Jesus and Elvis...
For real..

Maybe the only person we know "really" exists, besides Jesus, is Colbert.
So sign the petition to book Zizek on the Colbert Report...let's see what happens..

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