Yes, Zizek and Ke$ha have combined to form Ke$hek, a tumbler page of Ke$ha gifs and images with quotes from Zizek's writings, or vise versa with gifs of Zizek and quotes from Ke$ha's music. Made by a self proclaimed Zizek fan boy and a Ke$ha animal.
Whether you are an avid Zizek reader, like myself, or an ironic (and maybe not so ironic) Ke$ha fan, I thought we would all enjoy a Ke$ha and Zizek infused tumbler page.
You can view the complete tumbler page here. And I will put some of my favorite posts later on.
Beside this combination being hilarious, it kinda of makes sense. Ke$ha is a musical rock star because of her wild persona and crazy actions. Zizek is a rock star in the philosophical world for the same reasons.
Called the "Elvis of cultural theory" Zizek is famous in his own right. Know for his fast paced complicated writing style he talks about everything from Lacan to fall of the soviet union. Importantly, he can incorporate pop culture and current events to keep the things interesting, like references to the Matrix. We read an interview with him this week about the Occupy Movement and where the Left is today.
So what's so interesting about his life? Here are some Zizek facts: married to a supermodel, a candidate for the presidency of Slovenia, performs at sold out lectures, and goes on worldwide speaking tours. There are even movies about his success, such as 2005's Zizek!, a documentary following him around on his worldwide speaking tour. And there have even been police called to his appearance at a New York art show.
He is not just a regular leftist scholar.
Just like Ke$ha, Zizek can be very controversial. For one he claims to support Stalin. We read some of his logic behind this in the reading. In Zizek! we see that he hangs up a picture of Stalin in his house which he later explains he put up to shock people who walk in. Zizek even goes so far as to say "Without communist the oppression, I am absolutely sure I would now be a local stupid professor of philosophy in Ljubljana."
Ke$hek is a weird fusion of pop music and cultural theory. At the same time, the combination of Ke$ha and Zizek makes sense because they are both worldwide superstars. What makes the tumbler page funny is that the mixture isn't expected. We can view people in completely different lines of work with the same sort of superstar persona.
Beside this combination being hilarious, it kinda of makes sense. Ke$ha is a musical rock star because of her wild persona and crazy actions. Zizek is a rock star in the philosophical world for the same reasons.
Called the "Elvis of cultural theory" Zizek is famous in his own right. Know for his fast paced complicated writing style he talks about everything from Lacan to fall of the soviet union. Importantly, he can incorporate pop culture and current events to keep the things interesting, like references to the Matrix. We read an interview with him this week about the Occupy Movement and where the Left is today.
So what's so interesting about his life? Here are some Zizek facts: married to a supermodel, a candidate for the presidency of Slovenia, performs at sold out lectures, and goes on worldwide speaking tours. There are even movies about his success, such as 2005's Zizek!, a documentary following him around on his worldwide speaking tour. And there have even been police called to his appearance at a New York art show.
He is not just a regular leftist scholar.
Just like Ke$ha, Zizek can be very controversial. For one he claims to support Stalin. We read some of his logic behind this in the reading. In Zizek! we see that he hangs up a picture of Stalin in his house which he later explains he put up to shock people who walk in. Zizek even goes so far as to say "Without communist the oppression, I am absolutely sure I would now be a local stupid professor of philosophy in Ljubljana."
Ke$hek is a weird fusion of pop music and cultural theory. At the same time, the combination of Ke$ha and Zizek makes sense because they are both worldwide superstars. What makes the tumbler page funny is that the mixture isn't expected. We can view people in completely different lines of work with the same sort of superstar persona.
This is a hilarious post and the Zizek and Ke$ha connection is quite unexpected. While I would argue that Ke$ha is just a popular fad that will (hopefully) not be a popular singer for a long time, it is interesting to note that a lot of her popularity is based on her wild personality and unique behavior. I shamefully admit that I went to a Rihanna/Ke$ha concert and Ke$ha was up there taking tequila shots and parading around in sequin booty shorts. Is the crowd there because they genuinely enjoy her music and connect to it? Or are the fans there to see what wild thing she will do next? After awhile, how much of this wild behavior is true to herself and how much is there to please the fans thirsting for more entertainment? Is this true of Zizek? Are his controversial ideas truly a reflection of his feelings, or has it gotten to the point where it wants to give people what they want; crazy ideas? While obviously political philosophy and selling concert tickets are not exactly comparable, I think that it is important to make sure that one must be true to themselves even if it comes at a financial loss.
ReplyDeleteMarisa,
ReplyDeleteThe basis of your argument, derived from a blog intended to amuse its viewers, is actually a very interesting question. Does Zizek actually believe everything he says, or is he just caught up in his fame, and as a result professing shocking ideas that bring him even more attention? This question is legitimate because of his expressions of support for dictators that are almost ubiquitously deemed abhorrent by people of all political views like Stalin. Honestly, I think his fame that has resulted from his controversial views is out of line with his extreme leftist ideology. Is the point of the communist and socialist left not to raise the every day man to the same position in society as everyone else, doing away with concepts like fame that bring an unequal amount of wealth and glory to some? The Occupy movement, which protests the 1% of people who hold the most wealth, is virtually protesting people having more money than other people because they don’t have any, which would advocate a method of making people who are less successful equal to those who are more successful, thus effectively stripping them of their fame and recognition as well. Though he could view this as getting his hands dirty for the sake of getting his ideas out into the world, this is precisely the kind of ego of altruism that makes the left so unappealing and hypocritical.
I’m glad this was posted! This comparison of these two icons is very interesting. I think it raises a question about society even moreso than a question about Zizek. What makes people successful in today’s popular culture? What is success? I think both Ke$ha and Zizek have successfully shown that people just want to be able to classify something as “not the norm” and will flock to anything that’s new and that they couldn’t do themselves. Zizek is a respected figure, obviously, but he is not foreign to saying somewhat outlandish comments. I think it goes without saying that Ke$ha accomplishes this same task by making songs which are the definition of the mindset of every girl in their first welcome week of college. I think that society is stuck in a stage where they have no identity. Identity is defined by the people who we want to define us. Whether it’s the girl wearing the clearly-too-tight-and-shiny-with-sequins outfit to her first frat party or the scrawny white kid from Bloomfield Hills trying to don a pair of Jordan 4’s, a Bulls snapback, a crew neck from Motivation and a pair of True Religion jeans he bought on sale last black Friday at TJ Maxx trying to look like he belongs in Kanye’s entourage, we as a society are far too concerned with how we can distinguish ourselves from the pack – which is hilariously counterproductive in the sense that we are probably doing a lack luster job at emulating a pop-culture icon which most will never get the chance to be in the same room with. Brutal, but true.
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