Monday 26 December 2011

Slavoj Žižek On Advertising Vs. Academia


I love Slavoj Žižek though as our existential crisis moves up the hierarchy of needs, I find his musings on spirituality (for an atheist who says my God more than anyone else) somewhat threadbare. Particularly so when in this 2004 interview he wades into a shameless defence of St Paul while pointedly ignoring the Archontic threat articulated in the Gnostic texts....or maybe he just doesn't know.

However he's still brilliant and likeable given his shtick is to offend everyone while rarely stating what he believes in. I loved the end of this interview where he talks about taking money for some advertising work.

The Believer Magazine: You wrote some Lacanian-style quotations for last fall’s Abercrombie & Fitch catalog. How did that come about?

Slavoj Žižek: Oh yes, I was helping someone who helped me once. It was easy, he sent me a series of provocative images, and I just wrote silly Lacanian statements about them. My critics have attacked me saying, how can you conscientiously accept money from such a company? I said, with less guilt than accepting money from the American university system.