From The Hollywood Reporter · Scott Roxborough · · 1m 20s
The philosopher who became a meme
Slavoj Žižek built four decades of theory out of blockbusters and toilets, and the internet turned him into a star.
In brief
Slavoj Žižek built four decades of theory out of blockbusters and toilets, and the internet turned him into a star. Žižek's reach comes from the same thing that makes him meme-able: he treats pop culture as serious philosophy, and he cannot help performing while he does it. Originally reported by The Hollywood…
Academia's rock star
Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek occupies a slot almost nobody in academia gets: actual celebrity. He has held it for four decades.
“the closest thing academia has to a rock star”
Hegel via Hollywood
His method is smuggling. Hegel, Lacan and Marx arrive hidden inside arguments about blockbuster movies, coffee mugs and toilets.
Then the clips went viral
Somewhere in those four decades, footage of him ranting about ideology escaped the lecture hall and started circulating online.
The messenger was the message
Disheveled hair, nervous tics, rapid fire delivery. The very things that make him hard to watch made him easy to clip, and he became an unlikely social media star.
“instantly meme-able”
Hot and bothered on Zoom
Reached for an interview about Sophie Fiennes' 'The Pervert's Guide to Utopias', he opened by trying to cut it short.
“Let's get this over with quickly”
Undone by the weather
The reason was not the questions. A storm was breaking outside and the heat had him beaten before the call began.
“There's a storm outside, in deep heat, it's horrible.”
The main idea
Žižek's reach comes from the same thing that makes him meme-able: he treats pop culture as serious philosophy, and he cannot help performing while he does it.
