Marxist philosopher, psychoanalyst and cultural critic, Slavoj Žižek is arguably one of the most popular philosophers since Sartre. His meteoric rise, and the mainstream popularity of his films, most notably a Perverts Guide to Ideology, has been extraordinary.
Slavoj Žižek fans, (I know you’re out there, in the bushes), flocked to the Guardian website, on Wednesday 8 October 2014, where he was stationed to answer questions far and wide. It was a Reddit style “webchat”, and despite the absolute danger of incomprehensibility, it turned out surprisingly cogent.
One particular question caught my musical eye: “Stravinsky or Schoenberg?”
The two composers have been the cause of more riots than the Russian Revolution. Judging from Žižek’s position on the “Perverse Ideology” of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, I had my guess as to what his answer would be, but it may surprise you. Read on to find out…
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Of course, this question probably refers to Adorno’s book of philosophy on new music. And I agree with it totally. I am against Stravinsky, for Schoenberg. I think that when we get a breakthrough in art, like with Schoenberg, we always get then accompanying it, a figure like Stravinsky. Renormalising the breakthrough. Cutting off the subversive edge of the breakthrough. And I think again the same goes for other arts, for example, in modern painting, it would have been Picasso vs Braque. I think Picasso is Stravinsky in painting, with his eclecticism, while Georges Braque is the thorough modernist ascetism. Even in literature, although the homology is not perfect, I’m tempted to say Joyce vs Beckett. Joyce is I think too bright for his own good. It’s too pretentious in this encyclopaedic approach, like using all languages in Finnegan’s Wake; the true genius is for me Samuel Beckett. If I were to choose one novel of the 20th century, it’s his Unnameable. I think that the three absolute masters of 20th century literature are Beckett, Kafka and the Russian Andrei Platonov. If you put the three of them together, I’m ready to burn, sacrifice all other books just to keep these three. I think even much of high modernist writing is overrated. For example, if I were to choose between Virginia Woolf and Daphne du Maurier, I would immediately choose du Maurier. We shouldn’t be afraid to admit this.
Is Stravinsky merely a rounded-out, less threatening Schoenberg? Interesting idea.
Hipster quackery or not, check out more on his theory on whether Beethoven was practicing a critic on ideology with his Ode to Joy.
Michael Vincent
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