The Parallax View is Slavoj Zizek's most substantial theoretical work to appear in
many years; Zizek himself describes it as his magnum opus. Parallax can be defined as the apparent
displacement of an object, caused by a change in observational position. Zizek is interested in the
"parallax gap" separating two points between which no synthesis or mediation is possible, linked by
an "impossible short circuit" of levels that can never meet. From this consideration of parallax,
Zizek begins a rehabilitation of dialectical materialism.Modes of parallax can be seen in different
domains of today's theory, from the wave-particle duality in quantum physics to the parallax of the
unconscious in Freudian psychoanalysis between interpretations of the formation of the unconscious
and theories of drives. In The Parallax View, Zizek, with his usual astonishing erudition, focuses
on three main modes of parallax: the ontological difference, the ultimate parallax that conditions
our very access to reality; the scientific parallax, the irreducible gap between the phenomenal
experience of reality and its scientific explanation, which reaches its apogee in today's brain
sciences (according to which "nobody is home" in the skull, just stacks of brain meat--a condition
Zizek calls "the unbearable lightness of being no one"); and the political parallax, the social
antagonism that allows for no common ground. Between his discussions of these three modes, Zizek
offers interludes that deal with more specific topics--including an ethical act in a novel by Henry
James and anti-anti-Semitism.The Parallax View not only expands Zizek's Lacanian-Hegelian approach
to new domains (notably cognitive brain sciences) but also provides the systematic exposition of the
conceptual framework that underlies his entire work. Philosophical and theological analysis,
detailed readings of literature, cinema, and music coexist with lively anecdotes and obscene
jokes.