4
Surrealist texts have been a long time love of mine, but my interest in philosophy is fairly new. I have a lot of catching up to do. I’ve found, particularly for philosophy books, that Goodreads user reviews are usually of two extremes: 1. WTF I don’t understand this :( or 2. I’m denouncing this work in a self-serving effort to prove that I am an intellectual (may also happen in praise of the work). This is quite frustrating! Admittedly, I’m a noob, please offer something more. Haha
If you are interested in reading this book, I’d say go for it. Zizek’s critiques on liberalism made me want to extend my views. For this delightful surprise I’ve decided to rate it a four out of five stars.
1
“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life…You give them a piece of you. They didn’t ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn’t your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like ‘maybe we should be just friends’ turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It’s a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.”
Neil Gaiman quote from Zizek’s “Violence”
