Hitchcock's Vertigo, the missing underwear

As told 8

“Whom were the Hays Code censors trying to protect? Not us. Every spectator automatically assumes that what he sees is the underwear.”
37:08 Politics Between Fear and Terror2006-11-15 · 2:01:13

“I told them the spiritual gain of you the city city of San Francisco is that Hitchcock shot Vertigo there.”
33:53 International Journal of Zizek Studies Conference2012-04-28 · 1:29:20

“'I was born here, no, Kant Critique of Pure Reason and I died here and before and after are echoes'”
~1:15:14 The Parallax of Ontology2018-12-01 · 1:52:48

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

the big Other ×6 unknown knowns ×1 subject supposed to believe ×1

Its cast and sources

populated by

Julius Rosenberg2 Paul Robeson2 Ágota Kristóf2 Josip Broz Tito3 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak2 Mary Shelley2 Père Joseph (François Leclerc du Tremblay)2 Lavrentiy Beria2

alongside works

The Conflict of Faculties2 Minima Moralia2 The Shining (novel)2 Vertigo8 Works of Love2 In Search of Lost Time2 Jurassic Park2 Romance2

Told together with

38% Japanese workers and unused holiday rights 3 shared talks 27% Judith Butler: 'be one species among many', Žižek's respectful refusal 3 shared talks 25% Schindler's List, the girl in red 2 shared talks 22% Tito dies happy / Yugoslav debt accumulation 2 shared talks 22% Stephen King's The Shining as neighbor 2 shared talks 22% South African Truth and Reconciliation Committee vs. Nazi Germany 2 shared talks 22% Beria's entry replaced by Bering Strait in Soviet Encyclopedia 2 shared talks 22% Hays Code censorship codes (perfume = gay, New Orleans = prostitute) 2 shared talks 18% Proust's grandmother on the telephone 2 shared talks 18% God Created Fossils 2 shared talks 17% Martin Luther King and Tolerance 3 shared talks 16% Rumsfeld's known/unknown matrix and the fourth term 3 shared talks

Every retelling 8

37:08 Politics Between Fear and Terror2006-11-15 · 2:01:13

In the scene where Scottie brings Madeleine home, the Hays Code blocked showing actual underwear above the kitchen sink. Žižek points out the censors were not protecting viewers (who assume underwear anyway) but the virtual gaze of the big Other., illustrating the big Other,unknown knowns,virtual belief

33:53 International Journal of Zizek Studies Conference2012-04-28 · 1:29:20

Žižek tells his San Francisco audience that the spiritual gain of their city is that Hitchcock shot Vertigo there, meaning is produced in history through retrospective attribution, however crazy it sounds., illustrating retroactivity of truth

~1:15:14 The Parallax of Ontology2018-12-01 · 1:52:48

Madeleine points to the cut on a tree and says 'I was born here, I died there.' Žižek uses this as his personal philosophical autobiography: born with Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and dying there, with everything else as echo., illustrating Kant / idealism,philosophical autobiography

1:09:14 Fear Thy Neighbor as Thyself2007-11-26 · 1:55:58

The panning shot in Vertigo shows abstract cloth above the sink that viewers read as underwear under the Hays Code; like the Beria encyclopedia, the big Other is maintained for no actual person, viewers automatically complete the illusion., illustrating big Other,appearances,ideology and cinema

1:02:28 Year of Distraction1:16:41

In Vertigo, what viewers automatically read as Madeleine's drying underwear is actually just abstract cloth, the Hays Code required this, yet viewers still see underwear, revealing the big Other as the virtual gaze that must be satisfied., illustrating the big Other,censorship,appearance and reality

42:23 Maybe We Just Need a New Chicken2008-11-09 · 1:42:23

In Vertigo, a long panning shot shows what appears to be Madeleine's underwear drying, but freeze-framing reveals only abstract pieces of cloth, to satisfy the Hays Code censor. The censor wasn't protecting the audience (who assume underwear anyway) but the big Other of the censorship institution., illustrating the big Other,ideology,Hollywood obscene supplement