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By Shelley Jones
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Comments: 1
Tags: #Huck Magazine, #LWLies, #Shooting Zizek, #Slavoj Zizek, #Verso Books
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Photography: Mustafah Abdulaziz
Global capitalism is fast approaching its end times, says “the Elvis of cultural theory” Slavoj Žižek in his new book, Living In The End Times.
The upcoming zero-point is heralded by these ‘four horsemen of the apocalypse’:
- ECOLOGY
Impending ecological catastrophes - ECONOMY
The global financial meltdown - BIOLOGY
The biogenetic revolution and its impact on human identity - SOCIETY
Social divisions leading to the explosion of protest and revolutions worldwide
But from the ashes of the coming crisis, is there opportunity for a new beginning?
To celebrate the launch of Living In The End Times on paperback, Verso Books and The Church of London are inviting filmmakers to submit short films which respond, in creative and innovative ways, to Žižek’s theory of the end times.
Instructions
The film – up to ONE minute in total – can take any format: animation, drama, documentary, stop-motion or other.
The winner will be picked by Žižek himself!
The winning film will screen before an open lecture by Žižek in London later this year and the winner will receive a selection of Verso’s back catalogue, curated by the subversive publishers themselves.
Entries can be uploaded to a video-hosting website, like YouTube or Vimeo, with a link sent to zizekfilm@thechurchoflondon.com by June 30.
NOTE: Although filmmakers will retain ownership over their submissions, Verso Books and The Church Of London will have full permission to feature content across all their platforms.
Slavoj Žižek is Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities. His latest book, Living in the End Times, is published by Verso – out now in hardback and in paperback from June.
15.05.12 
10.05.12
I was interested in participating in this contest, so I picked up and read through (most) of Living Through the End Times. It's practically impossible to create a video that would both cohere with the content of the book and its title/blurb on the rear cover. The book is a collection of essays that are unrelated to each other, and have nothing at all to do with two of the supposed themes of the four horsemen: ecological catastrophes, biogenetic revolution — and have very little to do with the global financial meltdown or potential revolutions happening worldwide. It's clear that someone thought it would be an excellent way to market a Zizek book, but the chapter titles of the book reveal just how unrelated it is. Ch 1. Denial: The Liberal Utopia / Ch 2. Anger: The Actuality of the Theological-Political / Ch 3. Bargaining: The Return of the Critique of the Political Economy / Ch 4. Depression: The Neuronal Trauma, or, the Rise of the Proletarian Cogito / Ch 5. Acceptance: The Cause Regained.
Does that read like a book listing the four horsemen of the apocalypse?
Any video on this book is going to be entirely superficial having to do with the way it was marketed and not at all with any of the content within. Or create a video whose meaning is so opaque that viewers will assume that they somehow resolved the conflict between what it's sold as and what the book actually is.