http://projects.pomona.edu/english67f07/2007/11/29/happiness-after-september-11/ Theory, Terror, Dystopia Sun, 16 Dec 2007 07:09:03 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://projects.pomona.edu/english67f07/2007/11/29/happiness-after-september-11/comment-page-1/#comment-188 JakeP. Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:50:46 +0000 http://projects.pomona.edu/english67f07/2007/11/29/happiness-after-september-11/#comment-188 Honestly, I think that Zizek's collection of disparate points is nothing more than specious argumentation; even after this whole semester, I suppose, I'm still wary of writers whose difficult style screams out, "I have a point somewhere in my essay, but you're gonna have to find it yourself!" Then again, perhaps my gripe is just another indicator of my limited intellectual faculties... I do however disagree with Zizek's definition of "happiness," especially considering that he gaves it so resolutely, without deeper philosophical proof. What he described appeared to me not "happiness," but simple, stupid complacency. His verbose, academic intellectual definition of happiness can be much more succinctly explicated by that trite, fatuous old agade, "ignorance is bliss." Camus's definition of happiness (I'm assuming that most of us in the class are familiar with Camus's "Myth of Sisyphus") is a far superior, more philosophically rigorous analysis of "happiness" (especially when compared to the way Zizek just about drops the conversation about how one cannot confront discovering he has Huntington's disease and keep his happiness, and leaves himself pleased with his limited argument.) His essay certainly has a multitude of interesting points, so I'll stop with one compliment of Zizek: his description of intellectuals satisfying their consciences with chasing after impossible causes comes pretty close to perfectly describing how intellectualism would function in a totalitarian dystopia. Honestly, I think that Zizek’s collection of disparate points is nothing more than specious argumentation; even after this whole semester, I suppose, I’m still wary of writers whose difficult style screams out, “I have a point somewhere in my essay, but you’re gonna have to find it yourself!” Then again, perhaps my gripe is just another indicator of my limited intellectual faculties…
I do however disagree with Zizek’s definition of “happiness,” especially considering that he gaves it so resolutely, without deeper philosophical proof. What he described appeared to me not “happiness,” but simple, stupid complacency. His verbose, academic intellectual definition of happiness can be much more succinctly explicated by that trite, fatuous old agade, “ignorance is bliss.” Camus’s definition of happiness (I’m assuming that most of us in the class are familiar with Camus’s “Myth of Sisyphus”) is a far superior, more philosophically rigorous analysis of “happiness” (especially when compared to the way Zizek just about drops the conversation about how one cannot confront discovering he has Huntington’s disease and keep his happiness, and leaves himself pleased with his limited argument.)
His essay certainly has a multitude of interesting points, so I’ll stop with one compliment of Zizek: his description of intellectuals satisfying their consciences with chasing after impossible causes comes pretty close to perfectly describing how intellectualism would function in a totalitarian dystopia.

]]> http://projects.pomona.edu/english67f07/2007/11/29/happiness-after-september-11/comment-page-1/#comment-184 alison Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:45:41 +0000 http://projects.pomona.edu/english67f07/2007/11/29/happiness-after-september-11/#comment-184 It's probably lame to comment on your own post, but I just wanted to note the part of Indecision on pages 138 and 139 where Dwight is mentioning his incestual feeling for his sister to his sister, who is his psychiatrist, and she says: "it's sucha weak and easy fantasy for you to have, because actually you don't want to see it fulfilled." This is practically a direct quote from the Lacanian idea in Zizek. It’s probably lame to comment on your own post, but I just wanted to note the part of Indecision on pages 138 and 139 where Dwight is mentioning his incestual feeling for his sister to his sister, who is his psychiatrist, and she says: “it’s sucha weak and easy fantasy for you to have, because actually you don’t want to see it fulfilled.” This is practically a direct quote from the Lacanian idea in Zizek.

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