First As Tragedy, Then As Farce [Paperback]

Slavoj Zizek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2009

From the tragedy of 9/11 to the farce of the financial meltdown.

Billions of dollars have been hastily poured into the global banking system in a frantic attempt at financial stabilization. So why has it not been possible to bring the same forces to bear in addressing world poverty and environmental crisis?

In this take-no-prisoners analysis, Slavoj Zizek frames the moral failures of the modern world in terms of the epoch-making events of the first decade of this century. What he finds is the old one-two punch of history: the jab of tragedy, the right hook of farce. In the attacks of 9/11 and the global credit crunch, liberalism dies twice: as a political doctrine and as an economic theory.

First as Tragedy, Then as Farce is a call for the Left to reinvent itself in the light of our desperate historical situation. The time for liberal, moralistic blackmail is over.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The charismatic and contentious Zizek (The Sublime Object of Ideology) turns his versatile intelligence and acute ear for irony to a critique of contemporary capitalism. Given the recent financial crisis, Zizek argues that it is now impossible to ignore the blatant irrationality of global capitalism. He sifts through recent history to reveal how capitalist ideology functions to defend the system against any serious critique, despite its manifest flaws. He draws a sharp line between liberalism and the radical left, showing how the socialization of the banks—and socialism itself—is actually aligned with the preservation of capitalism rather than inimical to it, and derides socially responsible ecocapitalism as another avatar of a bankrupt system. Zizek concludes with a new articulation of The Communist Hypothesis, setting socialism and communism as antagonists and presenting a utopian vision that relies on breaking out of the structures and strictures of statism and the markets. An earnest and timely challenge, Zizek's critique of capitalism and repositioning of communist thought is both insightful and well-reasoned, and guaranteed to rile readers across the political and theoretical spectrum. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“The most dangerous philosopher in the West.” (New Republic)

“Zizek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation.” (The New Yorker)

“Zizek is an influential thinker, and this short book offers an excellent entry into his thought.” (David Gordon - Library Journal)

“[A] great provocateur and an immensely suggestive and even dashing writer... Zizek writes with passion and an aphoristic energy that is spellbinding.” (Richard Rayner - Los Angeles Times)

“One of the most innovative and exciting contemporary thinkers of the left.” (Times Literary Supplement)

“The Elvis of cultural theory.” (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 158 pages
• Publisher: Verso (October 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844674282
• ISBN-13: 978-1844674282
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.5 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"The most dangerous philosopher in the West," (says Adam Kirsch of The New Republic) Slavoj Zizek is a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic. He is a professor at the European Graduate School, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London, and a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His books include "First as Tragedy, Then as Farce;" "Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle;" "In Defense of Lost Causes;" "Living in the End Times;" and many more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Blistering attack on the Left. November 24, 2009

By M. C. Davis

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a reader of Zizek most of this is covered in other books. In Defense of Lost Causes immediately comes to mind. But if you don't want to slough through a 500 page tome but want to look at the latest political reflections by Slavoj Zizek then this book is a good introduction.

Also of note, this may be one of the few books criticizing today's political Left that's by a Leftist(although albeit radical Marxist one)and as such is a better and more well rounded critique concerning the path of the Left. Zizek's style is for experienced readers, one cannot just simply walk into one of Zizek's books and expect the dry pedantic style that plagues much of contemporary academic reading. It takes some skill to recognize what Zizek is arguing, but once you find that hidden gem, you gain an insight into why the system crashed.

60 of 76 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Timely Intervention October 12, 2009

By Nin Chan

Format:Paperback

This might very well be the best place to start if you're interested in the politics of this singular Slovenian philosopher. The prose here is as trenchant and as pellucid as it gets- it is clear that Zizek regards this polemic as a conjunctural intervention, and its topicality (much of the text deals with the current financial meltdown) is unparalleled in his oeuvre. Perhaps the closest parallel that one can draw is to Zizek's text on the Iraq War, Welcome to the Desert of the Real. This does mean, however, that one should not approach the text expecting to find a cursory sketch of Zizek's philosophy. Consider this to be an hors d'oeuvre of sorts. If you survive the naked forthrightness of Zizek's approach- his greatest challenge to our postmodern sensibilities lies in his uninhibited resolve to say what he means with a naďveté that is unprecedented since Nietzsche and Marx- you are already on the way to engaging with one of today's great provocateurs. The crucial point of the text lies in Zizek's classically Marxist assertion that, contrary to its (ideological) self-image as the embodiment of `objective reality' (capitalism as a pragmatic, time-tested formula that works in the `real world'), capitalism is, in fact, driven by a utopian fantasy of its own, the truth of which is revealed in crashes and meltdowns. The `crisis of the Left' lies in its incapacity to formulate a viable alternative, a crisis that must be overcome through commitment (allegiance to what Badiou has called the `communist hypothesis') and concerted hegemonic struggle.

24 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is It. November 18, 2009

By noeton

Format:Paperback

This powerful little tract is Zizek at his best and without much of the adulteration many of his more popular books have with regard to the jokes and pop-culture anecdotes. Yet it is as engrossing as anything he's written. The gauntlet is cast. Recent events have only brought to the surface the potential for capitalism to run aground and the remarkable unity of the otherwise bickering elite when it comes to keeping the profit flowing. Zizek discusses these events and maps how ideology, ideology, ideology, is everywhere in this moment where purportedly all ideology (including Alan Greenspan's), seems to have been shaken to rubble, and the only thing in front of us is to take the "pragmatic" but painful steps necessary to restore the markets and restart the engines so everyone can get back to business as usual (remarkable how much cash is suddenly available when the banks can't balance their own checkbooks, as opposed to when people are starving en masse in Africa). In page after page the case for communism becomes terrifyingly reasonable. Whether you are "with him or against him," you can no longer ignore Zizek after taking a serious look at this really magnificently composed work that condenses his whole political perspective without quarter. Personally, I have long been on the fence about embracing all that Zizek represents and all the consequences of his position. But I cannot see how this one can be the butt of jokes except for those so ideologically mystified that they'd chuckle themselves to tears if they were to really sit down with open eyes. Verso cleverly printed at the top of the cover a quote from a New Republic article on Zizek. It simply states, "The most dangerous philosopher in the West." This says it all, except, I wonder, who the heck is not in the west (today) that is a dangerous philosopher? CAN you be truly dangerous (to the western dominated global capitalist order) if you are in the "east?" Hence the geographic qualification means nothing but its mere inclusion implies racist sentiment. And does placing him in the west make him more or less dangerous than whoever in the non-west might be lurking in the jungle, as it were? Is the only possible reference Osama bin Laden? Thus HE is a "philosopher"? (a foolish idea, so indeed best not to state directly - takes cultural relativism to awfully absurd limits, no?), but then by logical substitution must not Zizek be a terrorist? Put the kettle on the burner and crack the celestial seasonings hemlock anti-occident tea, Meletus is back in town.