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The University of Chicago’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1892

Chicago Maroon

The University of Chicago’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1892

Chicago Maroon

Aaron Bros Sidebar

NYO: Slavoj Žižek doesn’t care about your thesis

Žižek, the noted radical philosopher, snubbed a U of C grad after a recent talk, the New York Observer reports.

Philosohper Perennial that kid Slavoj Žižek got a sort of mini-profile in the New York Observer Tuesday, where he was being "a Bourgeois Snob."

Žižek has a bunch of ties to the University, where he's been a visiting professor. In a definitely cool move, he wrote an article for the first issue of Hyde Park's own record of deep thought, The Point.

He once gave a talk at Max Palevsky Cinema that ended with a rendition of the comedian's joke, the Aristocrats. "In Zizek's version of the joke, the family walks into an agent's office with an act and proceeds to violently argue about Hegel. The agent asks what the act is called, and the father says, 'The Perverts.'" Umm…get it?

So the story, which is pretty hilarious, starts off with Žižek signing books for people, after a long, typical talk at Cooper Union. (NB: apparently the book signing was born in Marshall Fields, in Chicago!) He's asking people for their names to put in the dedication, and makes obnoxious comments about them, like this:

"Chris," said a seventh.

"Are you Christ without the t?"

Obvs, the kid probably replies. And yeah, the seventh; this has gone on for a while, the cheeky bastid.

But shi–, er, it soon gets real.

Afterward one fan told [Žižek], "I just want to thank you because last year I wrote a thesis at the University of Chicago based on your ideas."

"Steven," said the next.

"With a v?" asked Mr. Žižek.

"Yes."

"I knew it because there was another Steven with a v, and to me this is like that movie with Jim Carrey. It's a Truman Show, and you're all hired."

Damn, homeboy didn't even respond to the grad (or so we're led to believe)! The bastid!

You get the impression Žižek was doing something at this book signing, as Wikipedia says he is wont to do, and I guess that's sort of…, but…oh I don't really know what to make of this, or care. Maybe if I'd read more Žižek in my day, but I never touch the stuff, being a bourgeois snob myself…I guess…

By the way, if you're the grad who spoke to Žižek at Cooper Union, write in with what happened! What in Sam Hell did his "act" mean?

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