Demanding the Impossible

Starred review from September 30, 2013
Asked at the end of this slim volume what "the most urgent theoretical question of our time," Zizek (The Year of Dreaming Dangerously), the seemingly ubiquitous Slovenian philosopher, urges his audience to "redefine and rethink the limits of the possible and the impossible." This is as close to a thesis statement as one will get from the intellectually acrobatic philosopher who seems to delight in his provocations and incendiary remarks. Culled from live interviews and organized by editor Park as a series of 34 questions to which Zizek provides brief responses, this book meanders across a wide variety of topics, touching on conceptions of the common good, the trajectory of capitalism, and the state of revolution as Zizek explains his fear that the modern divorce of capitalism and democracy will lead to authoritarianism and a global apartheid society. The only hope, according to Zizek, is to break with traditional leftist tactics and radically reimagine our values. While some of Zizek's pronouncements have been complicated by recent eventsâparticularly his analysis of Egypt's potential following the resignation of Mubarakâthis book nonetheless stands as a helpful and accessible entry point into the thoughts of a man quickly proving to be one of the most trenchant cultural critics of our time.