If there are 2 people in this world that should get together and talk it is Molly Anne Rothenberg and Jodi Dean. Quite simply because they’re two of the most astute english speaking commentators on Žižek bar none. Dean’s presentation at the last conference on re-imagining communism proved she understands Žižek better than Žižek. But also because the acuity of their (Molly and Jodi’s) contesting (yes contesting, though not a lot contesting, hmmm a little contesting), theoretical perspectives would make for TOTAL INTRIGUE. Molly Anne Rothenberg’s scintillating book compares well to Jodi Dean’s treatment of subjective destitution and the discourse of the analyst, (see Dean’s book on Žižek’s Politics). The latter to the former, Dean to Rothenberg, is what Occupy Wall St. is to a Sunday afternoon demo in front of The Gap. Ok, I’m being a bit unfair to Molly, but only because her last chapter is so exasperating. For one thing she moves from talking about a Mobius subject (also called: the excessive subject, subject*) to a ‘neosubject’ which is confusing. Also, Rothenberg can’t quite pull off her wonderous and breathtaking “imagine yourself in a garage” analogy again, though she tries, this time in her treatment of the early Guattari, about a horse. But the horse in the stall metaphor kinda stalls. It’s Dean that could have brought Rothenberg’s last chapter to the finish line and hopefully that is not to slight the differences between them.
If Molly and Jodi sat down to talk
Advertisement
