I thought that Slavoj Zizek was brilliant—brilliant!—when I was in college. And he probably still is. But I can't read his books cover to cover anymore. I left lit crit and philosophy behind a long time ago, and now I find the jargon impenetrable.
However, I couldn't resist paging through his latest book The Parallax View looking for gold nuggets. He writes for several pages about the scene in Wild at Heart where Willem Dafoe traps Laura Dern in the back room of a motel. Tucked away in the middle of his review is the observation that "As Lacan put it, desire is mostly experienced as that which I do not want."
Those words have stuck with me this week. Food for thought.
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