The essays in Zero Point ask how we distinguish defeat from disaster, and how we confront despair without collapsing into it - questions never more pertinent than the current moment in the wake of electoral victories for authoritarian populists and unceasing news of violent atrocities.
The 'zero-point' of the title is ground level, rock bottom, the place to which one retreats and where one regroups. Taken from Vladimir Lenin's 1922 piece 'On Ascending a High Mountain, in which Lenin considers the complexities of how one 'retreats' while keeping faith in the cause, the central simile of the climber offers a blueprint for resilience, flexibility, and the persistence of hope. This is the revolutionary as living out the Beckettian motto: 'Try again. Fail again. Fail better.' In Žižek's hands, this becomes the formula for confronting the antagonisms of existing world order. With a particular focus on the Middle East -the point at which all our tensions threaten to explode – Žižek argues nothing can be addressed meaningfully without such a confrontation.
The consequences of eschewing apolitical acts of solidarity and choosing to attempt to speak truth to power are reckoned with in the second half of Zero Point. In a unique piece assembled chronologically from unpublished writings, Žižek wrestles with the fallout from his controversial speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2023 - a speech which saw him interrupted, condemned and accused of anti-Semitism. The reader bears witness as Zizek processes the criticism, evolves his thinking and explores the full ethical, political and personal ramifications of the question: When is the right time to speak?
By:
Slavoj Žižek
Imprint: Bloomsbury
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 196mm,
Width: 128mm,
Spine: 14mm
Weight: 186g
ISBN: 9781350537842
ISBN 10: 1350537845
Series: Žižek's Essays
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 01 April 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Editor's Note Part 1. Retreat and Regroup? 1. The Zero Point of History 2. The Violence of Truth 2. The Limits of Democracy 3. Trump Wins, Who Loses? 4. Nato and Belief 5. Shame and Dignity in Gaza 6. Protest! 7. Russian Magic Tricks 8. Divided we Stand, United we Fall! Part 2. When is the Right Time to Speak? 1. One Year Later (October'24) 2. Diary of an Aftermath Appendix: Frankfurter Messe
Slavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, a Lacanian psychoanalyst, and a Communist. He is International Director at the Birkbeck Institute for Humanities, University of London, UK, Visiting Professor at the New York University, USA, and Senior Researcher at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Reviews for Zero Point
These essays are recommended reading for their sane and nuanced analysis of the genocide in Gaza and the occupation in the West Bank. * The Prisma *
