{"id":9475,"date":"2025-08-07T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9475"},"modified":"2025-05-04T19:56:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T19:56:36","slug":"looking-at-slavoj-zizeks-book-2024-christian-atheism-part-23-of-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9475","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Slavoj Zizek’s Book (2024) “Christian Atheism” (Part 23 of 33)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

0245 So, what is the corresponding symbolic level?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is my guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0246 On the imaginary level, the normal context of human reproduction3a<\/sub> brings the actuality of the dyad, {pregnant woman [gestation and labor] mother and infant}2a<\/sub>, into relation with the possibility of human copulation… and… conception1a<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the real level, the normal context of the subject’s birthplace3b<\/sub> brings the actuality of the dyad, {a person [is born in] Los Angeles}2b<\/sub>, into relation with the potential of a location, where “location” is a mundane jurisdiction1b<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the symbolic level, the normal context of the Legal One3c<\/sub> brings the actuality of the dyad, {acquire citizenship [wealth and power] exercise order within jurisdiction}2c<\/sub>, into relation with jouissance1c<\/sub>, the potential of ‘a synthetic truth’1c<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0247 What about Lacan’s terminology?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, since jouissance1c<\/sub> belongs to the perspective level and since the logic of firstness is inclusive and allows contradictions, then the virtual nested form in the category of firstness is very much alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perspective-level jouissance1c<\/sub> virtually brings the situation-level potential of ‘identifying location’1b<\/sub> (in the normal context of the subject’s birthplace3b<\/sub>) into relation with the content-level potential of ‘copulation and conception’1a<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, Miguel and Gabriela, as foreigners, are not supposed to do what citizens are supposed to do<\/em> because… well… the jurisdiction’s synthetic truth1c<\/sub> does not account for certain possibilities1a<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0248 Previously, Lacan’s terminology with respect to secondness applies to the perspective level.  Objet a2c<\/sub><\/em> emerges from (and situates) jouissance1c<\/sub><\/em> and is shown in the following diagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

[The citizen’s birthright] expresses [wealth and power].  [It] is the substance between acquisition2c<\/sub> and the exercise of order2c<\/sub>.  [It] is a petit objet a,<\/em> a clue to the realness of the objet a2c<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0249 Lacan’s terminology is reproduced, like a fractal pattern on a higher level of organization, by the three-level interscope, in the following manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0250 Today, when I walk though a mall near the Pallisades, everyone sees a person [born into] Los Angeles2b<\/sub>.  My own presence2b<\/sub><\/em> is a clue that I am a legal citizen2c<\/sub><\/em> and have a mother who went into labor, years ago2a<\/sub><\/em>.  Everyone witnesses this particular person shopping, like everyone else, as a petit objet a writ large<\/em>.  They presume that the petit objet a writ large<\/em> signals an objet a writ large<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one asks me, “Are you a citizen of Los Angeles?”, unless they have taken an oath of office to do so<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one asks me, “Have you repaid your mother for her investment in gestation and labor to manufacture you?”.  Who would be so rude?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0251 In short, the virtual nested form in the category of secondness <\/em>appears to be a dyadic actuality writ large<\/em>.  It is like a juiced up version of the perspective-level actuality2c<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, this accounts for (in part), why Lacan, and Zizek following the master, introduce juiced up terminology, forcing the inquirer to see the three levels of imaginary, real and symbolic<\/em> from an alternate point of view<\/em>.  Think parallax!  Or maybe, think fractal!  How about “think shifty”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0252 Indeed, to me, it seems that Zizek’s Christian atheism is made possible through a psychoanalytic technique, <\/em>involving shifting locations within a content-level object2a<\/sub>, corresponding to {what I think [contiguity] what I say}2a<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, something like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hmmm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a container2a<\/sub> within which this opportunistic shifting of points of view takes place?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

0253 Is it the analytic dyad?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or is it… hmmm?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0245 So, what is the corresponding symbolic level? Here is my guess. 0246 On the imaginary level, the normal context of human reproduction3a brings the actuality of the dyad, {pregnant woman [gestation and labor] mother and infant}2a, into relation with the possibility of human copulation… and… conception1a. On the real level, the normal context of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[417],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"yoast_head":"\nLooking at Slavoj Zizek's Book (2024) "Christian Atheism" (Part 23 of 33) - An Archaeology of the Fall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=9475\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking at Slavoj Zizek's Book (2024) "Christian Atheism" (Part 23 of 33) - An Archaeology of the Fall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"0245 So, what is the corresponding symbolic level? 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