One of my favorite works from Slavoj. Very accessible and easy to read for the average reader (such as myself). I suppose that the failures of this work come from maybe the recycled nature of much of its content (if you've read Zizek before, a lot of what is said is not particularly novel) and the manner by which he goes about the book. Often times I am left rather confused as to the line of thought. He seems to jump from one point to another with little segway. This is not entirely uncharacteristic but it seems as though he merely made a bunch of notes and maybe combined them and edited together a central theme. Not a bad work by any means, very good read in fact. But problematic nonetheless. While shopping at Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon with my friend, fellow philosopher, and ministerial colleague Dan Morrow, he brought up Zizek. I said that I had never read any of his stuff, but that I needed to since I kept seeing him quoted in books and blogs I read. Dan recommended Violence as the best introduction to his thinking.And I read the book in a day and a half. I couldn't put it down. The initial chapters left me thinking this might be one of those books one reads that transforms one's thinking. It deeply impacted how I was analyzing things occurring in my own life.I only don't rank it higher because I did not feel the pay off in the end. The last couple of chapters didn't wow me as much as the opening one's did.Zizek criticizes right and left and exposes the flaws in much contemporary thinking, including pointing out the violence inherent in philanthropy, the misinterpretations of terrorism and fundamentalism, and more.I plan to post a few excerpts and discussions on my blog.
What do You think about Violência (2009)?
You are pompous and too arrogant to form actual coherent arguments. And you smell bad.
—maddiebattle77
I find a lot of philosophy hard to decipher, but Zizek is well worth the effort.
—jawad
