Still seems like a strange choice for something so foundational. Like, I feel like most people reading it are just gonna be like, "Huh, I guess Mao sucked."
Zizek doesn't really care. Even if the above comment on his facetious use of reactionary sources as jokes are true (and I think they are), they don't give a clue into what Zizek really believes. I also would not call Althusser a Maoist, or most academic radicals Maoists at all lol.
Here's something that I think is zizek being closer to what he believes re: Mao, https://www.lacan.com/zizmaozedong.htm, though who knows really. Side note, the natural science references annoy me so much in that piece, really should not be used.
edit: on further looking, I think what I linked is just an abridged version of the intro with some stuff missing, and I don't think the intro is being super facetious.
That is what was mentioned earlier, it's just his introduction to On Practice and On Contradiction. I don't buy that he's using those sources in a facetious way, for instance he uses Jung Chang's book to make a real point about Mao's "instrumental attitude" towards people and "cosmic perspective". The link on lacan.com is missing citations that are in the book, and the content of some are omitted.
Wait, why would he do that in his intro to Mao? Is Mao just supposed to be for elite academic radicals?
He's irony poisoned. It's just his memes are all from italian academic papers from 1996.
the academic elite radicals are pretty much all Maoists, like Althusser and so on
Still seems like a strange choice for something so foundational. Like, I feel like most people reading it are just gonna be like, "Huh, I guess Mao sucked."
Zizek doesn't really care. Even if the above comment on his facetious use of reactionary sources as jokes are true (and I think they are), they don't give a clue into what Zizek really believes. I also would not call Althusser a Maoist, or most academic radicals Maoists at all lol. Here's something that I think is zizek being closer to what he believes re: Mao, https://www.lacan.com/zizmaozedong.htm, though who knows really. Side note, the natural science references annoy me so much in that piece, really should not be used.
edit: on further looking, I think what I linked is just an abridged version of the intro with some stuff missing, and I don't think the intro is being super facetious.
That is what was mentioned earlier, it's just his introduction to On Practice and On Contradiction. I don't buy that he's using those sources in a facetious way, for instance he uses Jung Chang's book to make a real point about Mao's "instrumental attitude" towards people and "cosmic perspective". The link on lacan.com is missing citations that are in the book, and the content of some are omitted.
Yeah I think you're right.