It's up to the foreigners to find their way out. You don't have this self-humiliating, disgusting, pleasing attitude. What I liked there, in restaurants and subway stations, is the absence of English. On the positive side you see that there is a capitalism possible with moral values. You can turn it in a negative way, Japanese pretending to play capitalism, while in reality being one big conspiracy and authority.

What I like about fantasies is that they are always ambiguous. Than there is a Japan, loved by those who criticize our Western, decadent way of liberal democracy and who look for a model that would combine the dynamic of capitalism, while maintaining some firm traditional structure of authority.

But what surprised me is that authors, whom I considered strictly European, are widely read in Japan, like for example George Lukacs. All this spleen, this palette of fantasies, is Japan for us. The Japanese governments together with two, three mega companies plotting. What do they really want? There's also the idea of the Japanese as the 'ersatz' Jews for the Americans. Let's not forget the psychological cliche of Japan: you smile, but you never know if it is sincere or if you are mocking us - the idea of Japan as the impenetrable Other. Didn't Lacan say that Japanese do not have an unconscious?įor the West, Japan is the ambiguous Other: at the same time it fascinates you and repels you. There exists a small Lacanian volume, 'La chose japonaise.' They elaborate the borrowing of other languages, all these ambiguities. You say no to your wife in one way, no to a child in another way. Whenever you have the multi-culturalist approach, the almost standard example is Japan and its way of 'Verneinung', saying no. In the snobbism, drinking tea in a nice way, he found that live still had a meaning.īut there is another Japan, the psycho-analytic. If everything only functions, as in America, you would kill yourself. He found the answer in Japan, in the little surplus. Then he noticed that someting was missing. First for Kojeve the end of history was Russia and America, the realization of the French Revolution. Twenty years later this was of course the other way round. Philips for the rich and Sony for the poor. There is the myth of non-original Japan, taking over, but developing better: Than there is the capitalist Japan and it's different stages. What they perceived as Japanese was Brecht. But now there's in Suhrkamp Verlag a detailed edition of his 'Jasager' and his 'Lernstke.' They discovered that all those moments the Western critics perceived as remainders of this imperial and sacrificing Japan, were indeed edited by Brecht. Here in the West, Brecht was seen as someone introducing a fanatic eastern morality. He took over elements like sacrifice and authority, and put it in a left wing context. Then there is Bertolt Brecht as an exception. We know that Eisenschtein for his montage of attractions used Japanese ideograms. It's a no less phantasmic Japan then the first one. The empty signs, no Western metaphysics of presence. Then there is the leftist image, from Eisenschtein already: the semiotic Japan. There is the old, right wing image of the Samurai code, fighting to death, the absolute, ethical Japan.

What I do have, as every Western intellectual, are the myths of reference. Slavoj Zizek: First I must say that I don't have my own positive theory about Japan. What's your opinion on the technological culture in this country? Interview with Geert Lovink, InterCommunication 14, February 27 1995 Reflections of Media and Politics and Cinema perfume lacanian ink symposia messageboard sitemap links bibliographies Slavoj Zizek-Bibliography/Reflections Media Politicas Cinema/Lacan Dot Com

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