žižek archive
⌘K
archive / stories / Easier to imagine death of capitalism than death of Jameson

Easier to imagine death of capitalism than death of Jameson

example · Fredric Jameson · retold in 3 talks
on the map →

Žižek inverts Jameson's famous phrase as a eulogy: since Jameson lived until death 'happened to him,' it is now easier to imagine capitalism's end than Jameson's death.

2012: 1 talk 2017: 1 talk 2024: 1 talk
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026

As told 3

“Lažje si je predstaviti smrt kapitalizma kot smrt Jamesona. On bo ostal.”
27:21 Slavoj Žižek & Luka Mesec | Festival INDIGO 20242024 · 1:32:20
“it's much easier for us to imagine Armageddon... A small change in capitalism: impossible.”
40:50 The Year of Dreaming Dangerously Panel Discussion with Slavoj Zizek2012-10-23 · 2:02:47
“it's easy to imagine the end of the world... But it's impossible to imagine a slight change in capitalism”
12:01 Slavoj Zizek on Importance of Theory: Psychoanalysis, Belief, Deconstruction, Cognitivismpub. 2017-09-11 · 21:18

What it carries

one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)

contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
utopian dreams within the system ×1 capitalism as unlimited excess ×1 utopia ×1

Its cast and sources

populated by
Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais1Hardt and Negri1Jan van Eyck1Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti)1Branko Milanović1Lea Ypi1Enver Hoxha1Heinrich Heine1
alongside works
Vogliamoci bene anche l'amore [title uncertain]1Shogun1The Shatter1The Year of Dreaming Dangerously (Žižek, 2012)1Fear and Trembling1Arnolfini Portrait1Perfect Days1Free1

Every retelling 3

27:21 Slavoj Žižek & Luka Mesec | Festival INDIGO 20242024 · 1:32:20
Žižek inverts Jameson's famous phrase as a eulogy: since Jameson lived until death 'happened to him,' it is now easier to imagine capitalism's end than Jameson's death., illustrating utopian kernel of dystopia,capitalism as unlimited excess
40:50 The Year of Dreaming Dangerously Panel Discussion with Slavoj Zizek2012-10-23 · 2:02:47
Jameson's formula: we get a new asteroid movie every month, the end of life on earth is self-evident; a small change in capitalism is impossible. Žižek calls this 'ideology in practice'., illustrating the true utopia
12:01 Slavoj Zizek on Importance of Theory: Psychoanalysis, Belief, Deconstruction, Cognitivismpub. 2017-09-11 · 21:18
Citing his friend Fredric Jameson, he notes that catastrophe films make the end of the world imaginable while any slight change to capitalism appears impossible, as if capitalism would survive the annihilation of all life., illustrating political imagination,post-political cultural capitalism