The parallax view - Slavoj Zizek

The Parallax View is Slavoj Zizek's most substantial theoretical work to
appear in many years; Zizek himself describes it as his magnum opus. Parallax can be
defined as the apparent displacement of an object, caused by a change in
observational position. Zizek is interested in the "parallax gap" separating two
points between which no synthesis or mediation is possible, linked by an "impossible
short circuit" of levels that can never meet. From this consideration of parallax,
Zizek begins a rehabilitation of dialectical materialism.Modes of parallax can be
seen in different domains of today's theory, from the wave-particle duality in
quantum physics to the parallax of the unconscious in Freudian psychoanalysis
between interpretations of the formation of the unconscious and theories of drives.
In The Parallax View, Zizek, with his usual astonishing erudition, focuses on three
main modes of parallax: the ontological difference, the ultimate parallax that
conditions our very access to reality; the scientific parallax, the irreducible gap
between the phenomenal experience of reality and its scientific explanation, which
reaches its apogee in today's brain sciences (according to which "nobody is home" in
the skull, just stacks of brain meat--a condition Zizek calls "the unbearable
lightness of being no one"); and the political parallax, the social antagonism that
allows for no common ground. Between his discussions of these three modes, Zizek
offers interludes that deal with more specific topics--including an ethical act in a
novel by Henry James and anti-anti-Semitism.The Parallax View not only expands
Zizek's Lacanian-Hegelian approach to new domains (notably cognitive brain sciences)
but also provides the systematic exposition of the conceptual framework that
underlies his entire work. Philosophical and theological analysis, detailed readings
of literature, cinema, and music coexist with lively anecdotes and obscene
jokes.