File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_2003/lyotard.0312, message 132


Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 14:55:34 +0000
From: "steve.devos" <steve.devos-AT-krokodile.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Zizek and Badiou


Eric/all/lydia
Whilst I'm looking forward to the below I suspect the divide between 
what is an acceptable socio-political-philsophical position and that 
which Zizek/Badiou are going to suggest will place them firmly in the 
particularistic camp that they attempt to argue against. Why ? Because 
once you start suggesting that the fundamentalist position, any 
fundamentalist position is preferable to a liberal position (I imagine 
this is misnamed due the the usual intellectual confusion that surrounds 
these issues and I would consider it problematic in itself) then  most 
obviously you are legitimating all reactionary religious positions and 
the murderous 'holiness' that goes with it.

I imagine that Badiou would argue that the French State/Chirac's current 
enforcing of  non-religious symbols in French Public schools is an 
aspect of this liberal position. But this argument seems on the surface 
at least to be not sustainable because Chirac is simply not a liberal or 
a representative of a european bourgeois liberal position and that the 
French state is (like Badiou and Zizek) rejecting the multicultural 
position that they are arguing against, in favor of the conservative 
secularism that has painfully been constructed for well known 
socio-political purposes which some on the 'left' are mistakenly trying 
to get 'post'.  However the logic of Badious position is predictable and 
I agree where he produces it in in the Ethics text  - for example where 
he states that no category is in itself blocked from its possible 
politicization. (see pp112)... (However the category of God and the Holy 
is perhaps a step to far (laughs))

The quote is from the following - which I have of course booked tickets 
for...

Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou and Udi Aloni in conversation

Film, Talks:
Tue 27 Jan 2004. 

Slavoj Zizek and Alain Badiou argue with New York-based filmmaker, Udi 
Aloni, that the true danger in the Middle East is not the 
fundamentalists, but the predominant Enlightened liberals.

Lacanian philosopher and psychoanalyst, Slavoj Zizek is based at 
Ljubljana University; his most recent books are The Puppet and the 
Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity and Welcome to the Desert of 
the Real. Alain Badiou is chair of philosophy at Ecole Normal 
Superieure; his books include Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of 
Evil and Infinite Thought: Truth and the Return to Philosophy. Udi 
Aloni's acclaimed film, Local Angel, showing tonight, combines poetry, 
music and images both beautiful and horrific; an unlikely hybrid of 
elements including Jewish Kabbalism, Palestinian hip-hop, political 
activism and the writings of Walter Benjamin, it offers an entirely new 
way of understanding the Palestine/Israel conflict.

A DVD/ book Local Angel - Theological Political Fragments by Udi Aloni 
will be published by ICA, launched tonight and available in the 
bookshop' it includes commentaries by Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou and 
Avital Ronell, as well as short stories, reflections and a unique music 
video collaboration of Palestinian hip hop and Israeli rock.

http://www.ica.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=12933

regards
steve

Eric wrote:

>Lydia
>
>If you don't mind, would you send us a post about this book? I am also
>looking forward to reading it. 
>
>Steve
>
>Is there any more context for this quote? Was it part of a larger
>display?
>
>eric
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-lyotard-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU
>[mailto:owner-lyotard-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU] On Behalf Of
>steve.devos
>Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2003 5:27 AM
>To: lyotard-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU
>Subject: Re: Zizek and Badiou
>
>Lydia
>
>it's the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in london -  it did strike
>
>me as a somewhat bizarre quote of Zizek/Badiou to authorise... but that 
>it did seem to fit within the social and political trajectory that they 
>have been following recently.
>
>regards
>steve
>
>Lydia Perovich wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Steve, what is ICA?
>>
>>I don't know what they're going to say, but perhaps we shouldn't judge
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
>>by a single quote.  As for m'self, I am about to start reading 
>>Badiou's book on Beckett.
>>
>>L
>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
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