In Zizek's long-awaited magnum opus, he theorizes the parallax gap in
the ontological, the scientific, and the political--and rehabilitates
dialectical materialism.
The Parallax View is Slavoj Zizek's most substantial theoretical work
to appear in many years; Zizek himself describes it as his magnum opus.
Parallax can be defined as the apparent displacement of an object,
caused by a change in observational position. Zizek is interested in the
parallax gap separating two points between which no synthesis or
mediation is possible, linked by an impossible short circuit of levels
that can never meet. From this consideration of parallax, Zizek begins a
rehabilitation of dialectical materialism.
Modes of parallax can be seen in different domains of today's theory,
from the wave-particle duality in quantum physics to the parallax of the
unconscious in Freudian psychoanalysis between interpretations of the
formation of the unconscious and theories of drives. In The Parallax
View, Zizek, with his usual astonishing erudition, focuses on three
main modes of parallax: the ontological difference, the ultimate
parallax that conditions our very access to reality; the scientific
parallax, the irreducible gap between the phenomenal experience of
reality and its scientific explanation, which reaches its apogee in
today's brain sciences (according to which nobody is home in the skull,
just stacks of brain meat--a condition Zizek calls the unbearable
lightness of being no one); and the political parallax, the social
antagonism that allows for no common ground. Between his discussions of
these three modes, Zizek offers interludes that deal with more specific
topics--including an ethical act in a novel by Henry James and
anti-anti-Semitism.
The Parallax View not only expands Zizek's Lacanian-Hegelian approach
to new domains (notably cognitive brain sciences) but also provides the
systematic exposition of the conceptual framework that underlies his
entire work. Philosophical and theological analysis, detailed readings
of literature, cinema, and music coexist with lively anecdotes and
obscene jokes.
