Zizek for Weddings

Someone (Lowell) wants Zizek read at his wedding and asked for suggestions. This might be a joke. But I am going to take it seriously (in part because women I chatted with recently in Cardiff shared my sense of Zizek as romantic, touching, appealing in a loving sort of way). So, here are a couple of passages that one might read at weddings:

From The Plague of Fantasies, page 49

"when do I actually encounter the Other 'beyond the wall of language,' in the real of his or her being? Not when I am able to describe her, not even when i learn her values, dreams, and so on, but only when I encounter the Other in her moment of jouissance: when I discern in her a tiny detail (a compuslive gesture, an excessive facial expression, a tic) which signals the intensenty of the real of jouissance."

From The Fragile Absolute, page 128

"the true believe believes in appearances, in the magic dimension that 'shines through' and apperance--he sees Goodnes in the other where the other himself is not aware of it. Here appearance and reality are no longer opposed: precisely in trusting appearances, a loving person sees the other the way she/he effectively is, and loves her for very foibles, not despite them ... What is the Absolute? Something that appears to us in fleeting experiences--say, through the gentle smeil of a beautiful woman, or even through the warm, caring smile of a erpson who may otherwise seem ugly and rude: in such miraculous but extremely fragile moments, another dimension transpires through our reality. As such, the Absolute is easily corroded; it sliups all too easily through out fingers, and must be handled as carefully as a butterfly. ... ..true love accepts the beloved the way she or he is.

Comments

[Adam E.]

That's your next book right there, Jodi: "Zizek for Lovers!"

[tipothecap]

Here's another bit of Z that your topic made me think of:

"Only a lacking, vulnerable being is capable of love: the ultimate mystery of love, therefore, is that incompleteness is, in a way, higher than completion. On the one hand, only an imperfect, lacking being loves: we love because we do not know all. On the other hand, even if we were to know everything, love would, inexplicably, still be higher than completed knowledge. Perhaps the true achievement of Christianity is to elevate a loving (imperfect) Being to the place of God, that is, of ultimate perfection. That is the kernel of the Christian experience. In the previous pagan attitude, imperfect earthly phenomena can serve as signs of the unattainable divine perfection. In Christianity, on the contrary, it is physical (or mental) perfection itself that is the sign of the imperfection (finitude, vulnerability, uncertainty) of you as the absolute person ... Only in this way do we really break out of idolatry." [The Puppet and the Dwarf, pp. 115-116]

a tipothecap to you,
Michael

[lister]

what a load of bollocks!

[Lowell]

Thanks Jodi:

I like the second one. I found a passage in the Divine Self Limitation and Revolutionary Love interview, but my fiance wasn't pleased with the terms "abyss" and "struggle" being part of the wedding.

[McKenzie Wark]

Seems that Zizek wants to believe that Hegel believed...

His Absolute is intact, but remote, and conly fleetingly experienced.

[Amish Lovelock]

Slavoj is a sexy love god who deserves no less than total fidelity and devotion! Love your Zizek!

[Amish Lovelock]

That's the blurb for the back cover of the book, by the way.

[Adam Kotsko]

[W]e all know the charm of the [romantic] situation just before the magic silence is broken—the two partners are already assured of their mutual attraction, erotic tension hangs in the air, the situation itself seems to be ‘pregnant’ with meaning, to precipitate itself towards the Word, to wait for the Word, to be in search of the Word which will name it—yet once the Word is pronounced, it never fully fits, it necessarily brings about the effect of disappointment, the charm is lost, every birth of meaning is an abortion.... (Ticklish Subject)

[Amish Lovelock]

Oooh, vagina dentata!

[Jodi]

Gee, Adam, not that great for a wedding. I think Michael chose a great one. I love that passage, but didn't remember where it was. It's completely beautiful.

Amish, thanks for the blurb. You know, Z once wrote blurbs/captions/comments on a whole series of photos for a catalogue for Abercrombie and Fitch (photos by Bruce Weber, most with beautiful nude models, men and women). I think it would be fun to put these passages/clips with unsettling or surprising images. Probably better for a blog than for a book, though. Maybe I should try it....

[Adam Kotsko]

I guess this is why I'll never be married.