Violence: Six Sideways Reflections
Slavoj Žižek, Profile Books

The dust jacket announces him as “the Elvis of cultural theory”, and it’s true that Slavoj Žižek is as provocative — if not as accessible — as The King.

If there is one thing he enjoys, it’s throwing stones at powerful people.

He accuses suicide bombers and terrorists of being inauthentic fundamentalists (the Amish and Tibetan Buddhists are put forth as better examples) and says that super-wealthy philanthropists who have profited from capitalist systems, like Bill Gates, deserve a bullet for their attempts to subsidise their advantage.

There’s a significant chapter dedicated to “divine” violence and a constant smattering of religious issues throughout the book, making it nearly certain that Christian people will find something that will challenge, inspire or greatly offend them.

Žižek freely admits that Violence isn’t intended to be a tight, all-inclusive study of conflict but a “bric-a-brac of reflections” that asks the reader to look past the more dramatic and explosive incidents of conflict to the usually invisible systems of abuse that simmer within everyday life.

He swipes at emotional responses that lead to violence, taking a philosophic examination of envy, and uses many edgy and current examples to illustrate his points, including a self pleasure marathon, the infamous Danish caricatures, and an interesting analysis of the social breakdown that followed Hurricane Katrina.

But for all his topical examples, he’s still a little tricky to understand.

He’s against so many things that at times it is difficult to decipher exactly what he is for.

If nothing else, he is out to push people’s buttons and, if you are up for a heavy read, you’ll undoubtedly have your own heated opinion about this controversial philosopher’s latest work.

Lyndal Irons