The hobgoblin of little minds

The confusion of interpreting Žižek's wild swings between brilliance and nuttiness is the real subject (especially as it relates to the recent kerfuffles over Tibet) of a "review" of In Defense of Lost Causes. My favorite quote actually comes from Badiou's comment on the man who won't stop talking about him.

Badiou first identified Žižek as the inventor of "a strange and completely new composition," before proceeding to say, "This is the first time that anyone has proposed to psychoanalyze our whole world." "Žižek can interpret anything in the world," Badiou acknowledged. "You can ask him, 'What do you think about this horrible movie?' And he will have a brilliant interpretation that is much better than the actual movie."

Doesn't that sound like a fun weekend? No, I'm serious, I think it sounds fun; I am still annoyed that I narrowly missed getting to see Žižek speak in South Carolina.

Hat tip: 3 quarks...

While I'm talking about hat tips to 3 quarks daily, I am also going to push (and block quote extensively from) this article about watching Zidane – a 21st Century Portrait.

He has a completely natural type of focus – there is no posturing, attention-seeking or affected team-spiritedness. We all know that Zidane has mastered economy of movement and clarity of thought, but here he is shown also to possess a pared-down control of emotional stimulus. ‘Focus’ and ‘concentrate’ are the two commonest sporting clichés. But rarely does anyone add that you cannot focus and concentrate on everything. The art is what you leave out.

Zidane leaves out almost everything. ... It is not fake coolness. Instead, it is the genuine disinterestedness of the Zen master. He is doing his job so well, there is not space to worry about whether other people are also doing theirs.

Zidane’s ‘Federer’-quality runs through the film. Zidane is often almost still, barely trotting around. When he moves, it is for a reason – in his own mind, it will be a decisive move. His opponents, you feel, can sense the power of Zidane’s imaginative grasp. It is that which creates the illusion of complicity.

Zidane has something else, too. Where Federer behaves as if a scrap would be somehow beneath him, Zidane combines calmness with simmering street-wise aggression. There is a darkness to his concentration – he would be just fine if things got nasty, in fact he might relish it. He has ‘Federer’ plus violence. His is not a gentle kind of zen.

I normally try not to quote that much, but it is just marvelous. Go read it.