Trouble in Paradise, by Slavoj Zizek: a mish-mash of philosophy and prattle

Trouble in Paradise: from the end of history to the end of capitalism

Author: Slavoj Žižek

ISBN-13: 978-0-241-00496-8

Publisher: Allen Lane

Guideline Price: €16.99

Reading Slavoj Zizek – “Hegelian philosopher, Lacanian psychoanalyst” – is a bit like being trapped at a raucous student party where some very intense guy has cornered you and is talking loudly about everything over the noise of the music – Marx, bankers, the Catholic Church, Hollywood B movies.

You are interested for all of about five minutes before you get tired. Everything he has ever seen, read or heard is thrown into the conversation; everything is a tangent.

Zizek’s underlying thesis to this mish-mash of philosophy and prattle is that “Communism remains the horizon, the only horizon, from which one can not only judge but even adequately analyse what goes on today.”

Good luck trying to work that out from Zizek’s musing. Good luck getting to the end of the book, let alone history and capitalism.