This is a fantastic treatise on the subject of violence, very much aided by the fact that Slavoj Zizek’s prose is always very lively and informative.  Zizek also employs examples from popular cinema to illustrate his work, which very much adds to its readability.  You can’t really argue against a book that draws sublime parallels with Hitchcock’s Psycho, and Walter Benjamin’s famous interpretation of Paul Klee’s painting Angelus Novus.  My favourite section of Violence was Antinomies of Tolerant Reason, which very ably deals with the intricacies of the Israeli/Palestinian debate, and which should, in my opinion, be read by all parties in this dispute.  Zizek also discusses the concept of violence in reference to the current wave of terrorist attacks, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the demonstrations held to protest against the caricactures of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.  Zizek believes that violence originates in the fear of the Neighbour, and that violence is inherent in language itself, ironically the tool we use most to dispel violence. Thankfully, one of Zizek’s conclusions is that it is difficult to be really violent.
Whenever I read a book, I put a slip of paper into pages that I thought were very important – needless, to say, my copy of Violence is now filled with said slips of paper.

This is a fantastic treatise on the subject of violence, very much aided by the fact that Slavoj Zizek’s prose is always very lively and informative.  Zizek also employs examples from popular cinema to illustrate his work, which very much adds to its readability.  You can’t really argue against a book that draws sublime parallels with Hitchcock’s Psycho, and Walter Benjamin’s famous interpretation of Paul Klee’s painting Angelus Novus.  My favourite section of Violence was Antinomies of Tolerant Reason, which very ably deals with the intricacies of the Israeli/Palestinian debate, and which should, in my opinion, be read by all parties in this dispute.  Zizek also discusses the concept of violence in reference to the current wave of terrorist attacks, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the demonstrations held to protest against the caricactures of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.  Zizek believes that violence originates in the fear of the Neighbour, and that violence is inherent in language itself, ironically the tool we use most to dispel violence. Thankfully, one of Zizek’s conclusions is that it is difficult to be really violent.
Whenever I read a book, I put a slip of paper into pages that I thought were very important – needless, to say, my copy of Violence is now filled with said slips of paper.