Craig provides a breathless, exciting, account of the 'action' thus far (I advise reading it in a kind of hushed, Eric Idle commenting on something like a BBC sports announcer whisper). Link: theoria: Zizek!.
Zizek! is the controversy this year. Now, Zizek! has been a 'blogosphere' controversy for quite some time now through a generally rivalry between The Valve and the coalition forces of Long Sunday and The Weblog.
Here's the order of the latest volley, apparently over how to read (that is, interpret) Zizek!:
John Holbo brags about his success at the MLA and his Accolyte, Rich Puchalsky, agrees with every word. The comments trickle in slowly filled, mostly, with a post-MLA collegiality until Adam Kotsko, who is in possession of a much desired pre-release review copy of Zizeks! next book, makes the mistake of saying to Holbo, "It would probably be better if there were critiques of Zizek out there that were a little more serious than your article". The Accolyte gets (predictably) upset at any mean words about his Master. Fearing the consequences of The Accolyte's attention, Adam backs away. Holbo has an excuse ("I have to fly to Signapore, so I don't have time right now" -- or something to that effect) to avoid answering Adam's comments. The excuse might be legitimate. With the Master on the plane, The Accolyte steps up his game. Adam refuses to take the bait. The discussion quickly devolves into nonsense.
Meanwhile, Jodi Dean -- observing from a distance -- weighs in with a post to Long Sunday and then, shortly thereafter, a summary of the Long Sunday post to her own blog. The Long Sunday post attempts to deflect the attention of Puchalsky away from the ostensible topic by making the first part of the post about Althusser's book on Machiavelli. The trick works and The Accolyte does not comment on it. The version posted to her own blog dispenses with the comments on Althusser, posting only the material on Zizek! The Long Sunday version fails to take off, possibly because The Accolyte is afraid to take on his Master's enemy's on their home turf or because his Master hasn't yet told him what to think about Althusser. The Accolyte goes, instead, to Jodi's blog to continue the battle. The Accolyte wonders out loud, "Why doesn't everyone love me the same way I love Holbo?" Jodi's attempt to calm the Accolyte down fails, only pissing him off more.
And, see, of course, Adam on Why Holbo is wrong in every respect.
Critique of Zizek
http://zlomislic.blogspot.com/
Posted by: mark | August 09, 2006 at 12:45 PM