"The subject [is] an “answer of the real” ..: the subject is nothing but the point of failure of the..."

“The subject [is] an “answer of the real” ..: the subject is nothing but the point of failure of the process of its symbolic representation.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on how the real is “nothing at all, just a void, an emptiness in a symbolic structure, marking some central impossibility” http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/120376859037

"fantasy ..tries to cope with the fact that I am originally decentered, part of an opaque network..."

“fantasy ..tries to cope with the fact that I am originally decentered, part of an opaque network whose meaning and logic elude my control.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/120335443468

"The sublime voice of the beloved is] an object which is just a positivation of the lack in the..."

“The sublime voice of the beloved is] an object which is just a positivation of the lack in the Other. ..If we get too near it, it loses its sublime features and becomes an ordinary vulgar object.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/120313858069

"The drive ..goes on even when the subject has ..broken out of its illusory craving for the (lost)..."

“The drive ..goes on even when the subject has ..broken out of its illusory craving for the (lost) object of desire.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/120277894891

“kneel down and you shall believe that you knelt down...

“kneel down and you shall believe that you knelt down because of your belief.”

http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119675446052

"The pervert ..elevates the [fictive] enjoying big Other into the agency of Law."

“The pervert ..elevates the [fictive] enjoying big Other into the agency of Law.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119671547159

"A masochist locates enjoyment in the very agency of the Law that prohibits access to enjoyment."

“A masochist locates enjoyment in the very agency of the Law that prohibits access to enjoyment.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119665442711

"This is what is ..at work in consistent Christianity: I have to confront the terror of the big..."

“This is what is ..at work in consistent Christianity: I have to confront the terror of the big Other’s non-existence, which means that I myself am deprived of my symbolic identity - as a barred subject, I am no one’s and nameless.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on calling himself an atheist Christian http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119645609063

"we should still cling to the old socialist idea that the innermost happiness is something to be..."

“we should still cling to the old socialist idea that the innermost happiness is something to be shared.”

- vimeo.com/102591214 - SLAVOJ ZIZEK on the privatization of happiness http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119514971538

"Symbolic castration ..occurs by the very fact of being caught up in the symbolic order, assuming a..."

“Symbolic castration ..occurs by the very fact of being caught up in the symbolic order, assuming a symbolic mandate”

- Less Than Nothing - SLAVOJ ZIZEK on why symbolic castration is good
http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119501852643

"Are ..political-correctness-prohibitions rules which are to be violated in the seduction process? Is..."

“Are ..political-correctness-prohibitions rules which are to be violated in the seduction process? Is ..the seducer’s art to accomplish this violation properly — so that afterwards, by its acceptance, its harassing aspect will be retroactively cancelled?”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on how “there is no way to tell in advance what her reaction will be,” + how sometimes he can flirt only without knowing in advance if it will be seen as “harassment or a successful act of seduction” http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119489126598

"The capitalist process is by definition interminable, ..its ultimate goal is the reproduction of the..."

“The capitalist process is by definition interminable, ..its ultimate goal is the reproduction of the process itself;”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on how capitalism’s “lacking object ..is never at its own place, always missing,” how it is always excessively lacking, in the sense of justifying the excesses of trying to make up for its lacking http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119442319292

"(the utterly depressive descriptions of the sexual orgies between forty-somethings are among the..."

“(the utterly depressive descriptions of the sexual orgies between forty-somethings are among the most excruciating readings in contemporary literature)”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on MICHELLE HOULLEBECQ’s novel Atomised which for Zizek portrays “the meaninglessness of the permissive sexuality” http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119370690974

"The enthusiasm of fans for their..star and the..trance of a devout Catholic in the presence of the..."

“The enthusiasm of fans for their..star and the..trance of a devout Catholic in the presence of the Pope are..the same..”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on jouissance as the objet a that makes someone seemingly special http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119352692042

"Sexual difference is the name of a deadlock, a trauma, an open question—something that resists every..."

“Sexual difference is the name of a deadlock, a trauma, an open question—something that resists every attempt at its symbolization.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119325809948

"feminine abjection serves “to defer” the acknoledgement of the fact that the phallic man..."

“feminine abjection serves “to defer” the acknoledgement of the fact that the phallic man is lacking, Zizek says.”

- ANDRE VANTINO http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119299811184

"my alienation from the Absolute overlaps with the Absolute’s self-alienation"

“my alienation from the Absolute overlaps with the Absolute’s self-alienation”

- With the advent of modernity, the magic of the enchanted universe is forever lost.
SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119264584095

"A true love ..makes sex irrelevant.. - ..“fundamentally, sex doesn’t matter”, we can ..enjoy it..."

“A true love ..makes sex irrelevant.. - ..“fundamentally, sex doesn’t matter”, we can ..enjoy it without any superego pressure.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119242719191

"If we take away the obstacle, the very potential thwarted by this obstacle dissipates."

“If we take away the obstacle, the very potential thwarted by this obstacle dissipates.”

- if we abolish the obstacle, the intrinsic contradiction of capitalism, […] we lose precisely this productivity that seemed to be generated and simultaneously thwarted by capitalism
SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119216390425

"what the cynic leaves intact is the fantasy, the fantasmatic background of the public written..."

“what the cynic leaves intact is the fantasy, the fantasmatic background of the public written ideological text.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119202606448

"We obey the Law to fight our desire to transgress it. ..The more [we obey], the more we feel..the..."

““We obey the Law to fight our desire to transgress it. ..The more [we obey], the more we feel..the desire to indulge in sin.”

- ..The more we obey..the more we are guilty, because this obedience is a defense against our sinful desire.“ -Slavoj Zizek http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119190055658

"One of the ways to…conceal this inconsistency…is to claim that behind the…inconsistent reality…is..."

“One of the ways to…conceal this inconsistency…is to claim that behind the…inconsistent reality…is another reality”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on The MATRIX http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119181558654

"The “postmodern” subject …perceives himself as an out-Law, lacking the common ground shared..."

“The “postmodern” subject …perceives himself as an out-Law, lacking the common ground shared with others. ..The very presence of others ..is perceived as violent”

- Tarrying With The Negative, p.219 - SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119174777835

"Once she is confronted with one-night stands without ..objet a, ..one-night stands will ..become..."

“Once she is confronted with one-night stands without ..objet a, ..one-night stands will ..become meaningless.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on objet a as the thing that makes something more special, in this case it is the bad feelings after a one night stand that incite to have more one night stands. The pleasure she likes and dislikes in seeking one night stands is, in her case, caused by thinking of casual sex as something one should not do. This perceived prohibition is objet a in this case. The forbidden is the condition of pleasure being possible. http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119165760696

"The more the politicians were corrupt, the more ..they needed the Other, the one who sincerely..."

“The more the politicians were corrupt, the more ..they needed the Other, the one who sincerely believes.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119153813918

"Even if I don’t believe, I believe through my acts. ..Religion’s ultimate support is the illusion of..."

“Even if I don’t believe, I believe through my acts. ..Religion’s ultimate support is the illusion of the big Other, the symbolic order itself.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK, on how the big Other acts through us, in our acts themselves, even if consciously we do not support something http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119130212659

"The phallus is itself the signifier of castration + ‘penis envy is most profoundly felt by..."

““The phallus is itself the signifier of castration + ‘penis envy is most profoundly felt by those who have a penis’.”

-

SLAVOJ ZIZEK (Citing Boothby, “Freud As Philosopher” p.292 )

on how women might have less pressure to proof their potency than men and thus have less penis envy than men despite the fact that men already have penisses. 

http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119106027213

"[In totalitarianism] social Law ..is no longer that which ‘forbids’ + on the basis of this..."

“[In totalitarianism] social Law ..is no longer that which ‘forbids’ + on the basis of this prohibition, ..guarantees the field of co-existence of ‘free’ bourgeois subjects + their diverse pleasures.”

- ..What is the super-ego ..if not..the intervention of the signifier-command under its chaotic, senseless aspect?“ - SLAVOJ ZIZEK on the totalitarian aspect of bureaucracy in Kafka’s The Trial
http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119071714814

"a hysteric perceives the lack in the Other, its impotence, its inconsistency, its falsity"

“a hysteric perceives the lack in the Other, its impotence, its inconsistency, its falsity”

- lacan.com/zizek-love - SLAVOJ ZIZEK on anxiety
http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119036777177

"In Lost Highway, Fred suspects that Renee’s previous life involved ..some secret … place of …..."

“In Lost Highway, Fred suspects that Renee’s previous life involved ..some secret … place of … obscene enjoyment. ..Fred, … sentenced to death for the murder … of Renee, … transforms into another person (Pete) in his prison cell.”

-

..A bizarre shift from the dull … existence of the impotent husband … to the exciting and dangerous life of ..Pete who is seduced by the ..femme fatale reincarnation of Renee. ..This shift … represents Fred’s psychotic hallucination … of himself as a virile lover, … after the slaughter of his wife

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK

http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119018689300

"complaining to the Other ..displaces the need to act onto the Other"

“complaining to the Other ..displaces the need to act onto the Other”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/119005073790

"..Our … identity is a repository of the traces of our lost objects"

“..Our … identity is a repository of the traces of our lost objects”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK, Introduction to Adorno’s “In Search of Wagner” http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118955633948

"The chief motif of the ‘hard-boiled’ detective novel is that the femme fatale ..leaves many broken..."

“The chief motif of the ‘hard-boiled’ detective novel is that the femme fatale ..leaves many broken lives as a trace of its presence. ..Suddenly, one is placed in the perstpective which is hers + finds ..that she is..a..broken being,..not in control of her effects”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on objectifying a woman less when one suddenly finds out that she is lacking too, that she is not fatale, but human. http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118910485321

"the male subject ..expresses a dread that behind the many masks ..there is nothing - no ultimate..."

“the male subject ..expresses a dread that behind the many masks ..there is nothing - no ultimate feminine secret.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118884769724

"The infant ..is confronted ..by the unanswerable question of the mother’s desire. It is in the fate..."

“The infant ..is confronted ..by the unanswerable question of the mother’s desire. It is in the fate of this question that the mother assumes the form of das Ding, ..the unknowable, unmasterable + monstrous”

- RICHARD BOOTHBY http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118766636491

"[Militaristic Zen perversely says that] liberation lies in losing one’s Self, ..uniting with the..."

“[Militaristic Zen perversely says that] liberation lies in losing one’s Self, ..uniting with the ..Void, .. the difference between life + death no longer matters, we regain the original selfless unity.”

- ..This is ..perverse: ..The warrior no longer acts as a person; he is ..desubjectivized.
- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118717950083

"that figures like Eichmann were not ‘perverted sadists’ ..refers to the ..notion of a ‘sadist’ as a..."

“that figures like Eichmann were not ‘perverted sadists’ ..refers to the ..notion of a ‘sadist’ as a person who fully wills and enjoys the suffering he inflicts upon his others.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on how Eichmann was actually a perverse subject in how he justified his actions by making himself someone who, in his view, just executes a quasi divine will http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118695856143

"cinema consists in arousing desire, to play with desire. But, at the same time, keeping it at a safe..."

“cinema consists in arousing desire, to play with desire. But, at the same time, keeping it at a safe distance, domesticating it”

- Slavoj Zizek (Pervert’s Guide to Cinema) http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118633197998

"our idea is too precious to be entrusted to the ..addressee, who may not grasp its worth, so we..."

“our idea is too precious to be entrusted to the ..addressee, who may not grasp its worth, so we ‘send’ it to the equivalent in fantasy, on whom we can absolutely count”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on why women send more letters than they post http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118607658332

People do everything possible not to be happy. - SLAVOJ ZIZEK

People do everything possible not to be happy. - SLAVOJ ZIZEK

http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118599216287

"Penis envy is most profoundly felt by those who have a penis."

““Penis envy is most profoundly felt by those who have a penis.””

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK citing Richard Boothby, “the fact that the phallus is itself the signifier of castration” http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118534879757

"It is as if in order ..to desire her, to have sexual intercourse with her, ..Scottie has to mortify..."

“It is as if in order ..to desire her, to have sexual intercourse with her, ..Scottie has to mortify her, to change her into a dead woman. It’s as if, again, for the male libidinal economy, ..the only good woman is a dead woman. ..He has totally to erase the woman as a desiring entity. That’s for him the condition to desire. ~SLAVOJ_ZIZEK” http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118480871590

"by destroying his agalma (..making him renounce it), she will own him, … he will become worthless"

“by destroying his agalma (..making him renounce it), she will own him, … he will become worthless”

- lacan.com/symptom13/?p=110 - SLAVOJ ZIZEK
http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118422575958

"However much he stuffs himself, he cannot fill up the hole that constitutes the drive of his..."

“However much he stuffs himself, he cannot fill up the hole that constitutes the drive of his actions.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on why Don Juan is ready to go from one seduction to the next, never hoping to arrive anywhere + how ‘this makes Don Juan a figure of the drive’ in the Lacanian sense of 'drive’ as a circling around the libidinal object, as an aiming without an aim, an aiming that has no goal, no absolute Thing to arrive at, an aiming that has only the aiming itself as its goal. http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118292449960

"Authentic fundamentalists (like the Amish) get along ..with their ..neighbors since they are simply..."

“Authentic fundamentalists (like the Amish) get along ..with their ..neighbors since they are simply centered on their own world ..while the Moral Majority fundamentalist is haunted by horror/envy with regard to the pleasures in which the sinners engage.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118274316190

"Desire is grounded in its constitutive lack"

“Desire is grounded in its constitutive lack”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118248171033

"Kafka is a ‘writer of absence’, describing a world that remains religious in its structure but in..."

“Kafka is a ‘writer of absence’, describing a world that remains religious in its structure but in which the central place belonging to God is empty.”

-

less than nothing - (source: alterities) - SLAVOJ ZIZEK

http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118196212469

"the torturer’s hurt sensitivity as the (main) human cost of torture -..Zero Dark Thirty is much..."

“the torturer’s hurt sensitivity as the (main) human cost of torture -..Zero Dark Thirty is much worse than 24, where at least Jack Bauer breaks down at the series finale.”

- Slavoj Zizek http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118188706438

"Fantasy is ..a fantasy of the sexual relationship, a staging of it. ..There is nothing ‘behind’ it...."

“Fantasy is ..a fantasy of the sexual relationship, a staging of it. ..There is nothing ‘behind’ it. ..Fantasy masks precisely this ‘nothing’.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118181294377

"The hysteric is able to enjoy the object of love (the lover) only insofar as it remains illicit,..."

“The hysteric is able to enjoy the object of love (the lover) only insofar as it remains illicit, insofar as it maintains a potential status (i.e. in the guise of fantasies about what “might have” happened).”

- Four Discourses, Four Subjects, SIC2, p86 - SLAVOjZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118135358056

"Objet a deceives because ..it invokes the impression of some substantial Real behind, ..that, behind..."

“Objet a deceives because ..it invokes the impression of some substantial Real behind, ..that, behind it, there is the lost substance of jouissance”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/118001009923

It’s like fantasy realised. ..It’s called “nightmare”. ..The violence in this case of Scottie’s...

It’s like fantasy realised. ..It’s called “nightmare”. ..The violence in this case of Scottie’s brutal refashioning of Judy, a real, common girl, into Madeleine. It’s truly a process of mortification, which also is the mortification of woman’s desire. ~SLAVOJ_ZIZEK on Vertigo

http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/117960418877

"sex is ..a desperate ..measure aimed at keeping at bay the spectral netherworld of fantasies"

“sex is ..a desperate ..measure aimed at keeping at bay the spectral netherworld of fantasies”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on this netherworld which is not about anything forbidden or crazy, but is simply the netherworld of existence, of being alive and being unable to know how to respond to this aliveness. http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/117941240102

"In Blade Runner, R. ..starts to cry when D. proves ..that she is a replicant. The ..grief over the..."

“In Blade Runner, R.  ..starts to cry when D. proves ..that she is a replicant. The ..grief over the loss of her “humanity,” ..or, [in the case of any human being] the eternal gnawing doubt over whether I am truly human or just an android - it is these states which make me human.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on subjectivity as lack, on how we are all replicants when it comes to the uncertainty of any identity http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/117873590175

"subjects experience the need to have a good time ..as a kind of duty; consequently, they feel guilty..."

“subjects experience the need to have a good time ..as a kind of duty; consequently, they feel guilty if they fail to be happy.”

- SLAVOJ ZIZEK on our feeling guilty for doing nothing http://alterities.tumblr.com/post/117846619831