I wrote a short article proposing a radical reading of the story of Babel, and how this leads to my Zizekian theory of mistranslations. If anyone reads it, enjoy!
open.substack.com/pub/martinha...
A common recommendation is Bruce Fink's 'The Lacanian Subject', but the recently published 'The Cambridge Introduction to Lacan' by Todd McGowan is probably a good place to begin as well.
At last, I finished Žižek's 'Less Than Nothing' Still convinced of Ž's project in developing DiaMat through a materialist return to Hegel.
To all my fellow Marxists, I assure you the greatness of Marx shines through the most once you drop the doxa and stop calling everything "revisionism".
hello how is everyone
Woooooow well done!!!
To defend Joe Biden, who "allowed the genocide of the Palestinian population etc.", because he's now a cancer patient is like remembering Hitler on Suicide Prevention Day.
#OtD 3 Mar 1976 in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, Spanish police killed 5 workers and injured another 100 during a general strike stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1...
Stop these flights and stop arming Israel.
Yes! Hegel is an obvious choice here, but if you *had* to pick, which chapter from PoS do you think would be the best? Or from any other of his writings?
OK, hear me out.
A study group where we read:
Plato: Sophist & Parmenides
Badiou: Logic of Worlds
Cassin: Jacques the Sophist
Cassin and Badiou: There is no such thing as a sexual relation
Zupancic: What is Sex?
Žižek: Less Than Nothing (selections)
What Hegel text would you add?
I could swear Musk is using his child as a human shield ever since CEOs started getting shot.
Arguably, all culture is nothing but a coping mechanism.
small note: it was probably Louis Blanc who coined the term capitalism, and Marx never used the term at all. He called it "generalised commodity production", and would refer to capital and capitalists, but never the word "capitalism".
my favorite marx edit is when he changed “i know it’s easier said than done” to “you have nothing to lose but your chains”
"HE who saw the Deep" -- there is the first line to the oldest piece of recorded literature we've discovered: The Epic of Gilgamesh. Composed 3,000-5,000 years ago. Lost for 2,000 years, discovered in 1853, translated in 1872.
I would even say that a Lacanian point here is that work has to be a bit shit and boring so we can enjoy the rest of our lives. Imagine having to enjoy work! I'm okay with it being (a bit) shit, not too much, obviously. But enough so that we can bitch about it a bit when we go home to our families.
Yeah, there's so-called constituted (historical) & constitutive (inherent) alienation. I hope you're right, but I'm pessimistic about work having necessarily any artistic quality. But I'd be fine with work being a bit shit so long as we don't have to worry about house, school, health, food, etc.
oops my gender bias has shown
A lot of undergrads get into trauma studies and find the idea that "trauma is an encounter with the Real", but when talking about the Real, it is often forgotten: the Real is traumatic precisely because it is the impossible that nevertheless happens.
To this quote we must always add:
The Real is the impossible, yes, but it is the impossible that happens nonetheless!
The first book I ever read on semiotics was "Semiotics: A Graphic Guide" as a complete beginner, and it was simply a great starting point. All the basics and a bit more.
From there, he could probably pick up Bruce Fink's The Lacanian Subject if he's already interested in Lacan.
So, we can't overcome our alienation from society, we shouldn't hope to become "One" with the rest of the world because we can't even become "One" with ourselves. The task is thus not an unalienated utopia, but an alienation with which we can come to terms.
That's the Lacanian approach, imo.
Agree we are alienated from society, but I think it's worth noting that desire means you are alienated from yourself, not just from the world, and this internal alienation is what constitutes you as a subject, impossible to "fix", to "satisfy" our desire and become Whole/One without losing ourselves
If you haven't already, you might enjoy Todd McGowan's Capitalism & Desire, which explores how and why capitalism is able to exploit our desire/alienation so effectively. He's a clear writer and no deep knowledge of Lacan is necessary.
Babies when I play peekaboo with them
There's been a job opening recently in a field I don't have any experience in (healthcare) and a position I'm not really qualified for (CEO) but I reckon I should just go ahead and give it a shot
I've heard that "brilliant" moves are registered when you sacrifice a piece. Here, you sacrifice your light-squared bishop, but if their queen takes it, you can then pin their queen with your rook on e1, protected by your queen. You're basically up a queen if they take the offer.
there's a meme going around that's "post some books that are important to you but don't say why 🤫" but fuck that, tell me why they hold a special place in your heart
there were 300 proud @living-rent.bsky.social members outside scottish parliament last night demanding MSPs vote in favour of rent controls today. the housing bill wouldn’t have happened without us - there is power in a union!
