Jelinek, language lies, must be tortured to tell the truth
example · Austrian literature: Elfriede Jelinek ·
retold in 3 talks
Austrian Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek said in an interview that language by its nature lies and must be tortured to say the truth, Žižek uses this to support his thesis about fundamental violence in language.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“Language by its nature is lying. We have to torture language to make it say the truth.”
“Language should be tortured to tell the truth.”
“language spontaneously is lying. we have to torture language make to squeeze out the truth out of it.”
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)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Ivan Illich1Günter Anders1Néstor Kirchner1Elfriede Jelinek3John McCain1Hassan Ngeze1Peter Handke1Reza Aslan1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
Austrian Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek said in an interview that language by its nature lies and must be tortured to say the truth, Žižek uses this to support his thesis about fundamental violence in language., illustrating language as torture machine,language and truth
Žižek quotes Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek, 'Language should be tortured to tell the truth', as the clearest formulation of the divine violence of language against Heidegger's Gelassenheit., illustrating divine violence of language,torture house of language
Žižek cites Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek (whom he finds 'too tasteless') for the line that language spontaneously lies and you must torture language to squeeze truth out of it, using it to rebut Heidegger's 'let language speak.', illustrating language and truth,against Heidegger