{"product_id":"slavoj-birkbeck-institute-for-hu-zizek-zero-point-2025","title":"Slavoj (Birkbeck Institute for Hu Zizek: Zero Point [2025]","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe essays in \u003ci\u003eZero Point\u003c\/i\u003e ask how we distinguish defeat from disaster, and how we confront despair without collapsing into it - questions never more pertinent than the current moment in the wake of electoral victories for authoritarian populists and unceasing news of violent atrocities.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The 'zero-point' of the title is ground level, rock bottom, the place to which one retreats and where one regroups. Taken from Vladimir Lenin's 1922 piece 'On Ascending a High Mountain, in which Lenin considers the complexities of how one 'retreats' while keeping faith in the cause, the central simile of the climber offers a blueprint for resilience, flexibility, and the persistence of hope. This is the revolutionary as living out the Beckettian motto: 'Try again. Fail again. Fail better.' In Zizek's hands, this becomes the formula for confronting the antagonisms of existing world order. With a particular focus on the Middle East -the point at which all our tensions threaten to explode - Zizek argues nothing can be addressed meaningfully without such a confrontation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe consequences of eschewing apolitical acts of solidarity and choosing to attempt to speak truth to power are reckoned with in the second half of \u003ci\u003eZero Point. \u003c\/i\u003eIn a unique piece assembled chronologically from unpublished writings, Zizek wrestles with the fallout from his controversial speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2023 - a speech which saw him interrupted, condemned and accused of anti-Semitism. The reader bears witness as Zizek processes the criticism, evolves his thinking and explores the full ethical, political and personal ramifications of the question: When is the right time to speak?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Zizek, Slavoj (Birkbeck Institute For Hu","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":53104216080723,"sku":"9781350537842","price":13.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/zizek-slavoj-birkbeck-institute-for-hu-slavoj-birkbeck-institute-for-hu-zizek-zero-point-2025-9781350537842-1222292032.jpg?v=1771967196","url":"https:\/\/chaptersbookstore.com\/products\/slavoj-birkbeck-institute-for-hu-zizek-zero-point-2025","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}