last night I went to see Žižek talk about media at the ICA. He is truly energetic, not only in his philosophy but also with his body where his gestural movements seem to lift and fall with the intensities of his feelings for things. I love him. 

There were two things in particular he spoke of that made perfect sense to me. That of thinking being painful, like an attack on the subject and attempting to find truth and meaning is an agonising process – I can relate to on having just written a big paper and my mind being worn out and sore, but sore like legs that have run to far, where you have felt the full use of them. He also spoke of jokes as being a great portal into serious thought. He told us a great joke: a Montenegro man who was so lazy he took two glasses to his bedside at night, one full with water and one empty, so if he was thirsty or not in the night all bases were covered. (Žižek explained how this was also a great example of dialectical Hegelian double negation – or something – I’m afraid I know nothing about Hegel) But what this ludicrous tale did was exemplify the power of jokes to make you laugh and make you think. I’ve been thinking about jokes and the way they access a freedom to thought, so I loved this.