The Optimism of Melancholia | Slavoj Žižek | Big Think

The Optimism of Melancholia
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The philosopher on why Melancholia is actually an optimistic movie.
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SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK

Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic. He is a professor at the European Graduate School, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London, and a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His books include Living in the End Times, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, In Defense of Lost Causes, four volumes of the Essential Žižek, and Event: A Philosophical Journey Through a Concept.

Žižek received his Ph.D. in Philosophy in Ljubljana studying Psychoanalysis. He has been called the "Elvis of philosophy" and an "academic rock star." His work calls for a return to the Cartesian subject and the German Ideology, in particular the works of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. Slavoj Žižek's work draws on the works of Jacques Lacan, moving his theory towards modern political and philosophical issues, finding the potential for liberatory politics within his work. But in all his turns to these thinkers and strands of thought, he hopes to call forth new potentials in thinking and self-reflexivity. He also calls for a return to the spirit of the revolutionary potential of Lenin and Karl Marx.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Slavoj Zizek: Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, I think, it’s a basically, I’m not kidding, optimistic film, even as we know at the end the planet Melancholia hits the earth, we all die. But I find something beautifully poetical in the attitude of the main person, Justine, played by Kirsten Dunst, no, this inner peace, how she accepts this.

I claim that we should not read this as kind of a pessimism. “Oh, we all die. Who cares?” No, if you really want to do something good for society, if you want to avoid all totalitarian threats and so on, you basically should go . . . we should all go to this, let me call it--although I’m a total materialist--fundamentally spiritual experience of accepting that at some day everything will finish, that at any point the end may be near. I think that, quite on the contrary of what may appear, this can be a deep experience which pushes you to strengthen ethical activity.

The result of this experience is not, “Oh, the end may be near, so let’s kill, let’s just enjoy,” and so on. No, it’s the opposite. Again, paradoxically, I claim it’s not a superficially but profoundly optimistic film.

Interviewed by Megan Erickson
Directed / Produced by Jonathan Fowler & Elizabeth Rodd
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[nottees]

Terence McKenna said that when the doctors told him he only had a few months at most to live, even a bug crawling across a leaf could move him to tears.

[vukasinvasic]

This is one of the best messages ever. “He who has ears, let him hear.” Professor, thank you.

[blizzmen]

Proust once said something very similar when asked how he feels about a apocalyptic scenario. He said that everything suddenly would become so beautiful...

[prowokator]

I love this guy. And he always looks like he is at that verge of before the hangover really hits and you're still drunk but sober and energetic enough to talk a lot. There is a documentary of him, worth checking out.

[schroeder]

This is the main purpose of horror in noir/horror films. They say this in meditation as well. Sometimes you float serenely, passively, a full victim, toward the most horrific thoughts, images and realizations. These pieces of art are there to help you travel toward horror. This is the purpose of David Lynch's films. They are intended to reunite you with terror on the deepest level because that terror is some of the most highly alive, strong part of yourself. It awakens you briskly, like eating a terrific spice, but it also helps integrate you with your unconscious.

[broark]

I too saw the film as optimistic. It explores the depths of a yet mysterious illness - depression - with subjective, objective, and figurative (the planet) depictions of its effects. But just as the world is ending, who is the only one who still can think clearly? Justine. She makes the last moments count by indulging the optimism of a child. When there's nothing you can do about a situation, doing something is doing everything.

Zizek's point about totalitarianism is precisely that: the "pessimist" might imagine there's no out but death; yet that is exactly the frame of mind that leads people to take the actions necessary to improve a seemingly hopeless situation.

[lingolicious]

when my grandpa died, my depression/anxiety was like a blanket weighting my whole life down for years. i saw a beautiful girl, felt nothing. heard a familiar song on the radio. felt nothing at all. i wasn't sad about not getting aroused. or sad about what the song reminded me of or that it didn't have that uplifting effect like it did before. there was just nothing. little by little i felt stuff triggering me. still almost nothing, but when i saw an elderly couple holding hands in the metro or was walking by my grandpa's favourite brand of candy in the store, i started crying. felt sadness. finally. which was better than nothing. like justine in the film, i went in and out. then i started looking up everywhere i went. instead of shoegazing, i looked up and imagined where i could end it all. looking for beams. justine looked up to the incoming planet and from my point of view, saw this as salvation and a way out, where others panicked and saw it as a negative. justine saw it as something positive. maybe she was even optimistic. the planet actively ending her life and she could only wait passively. after research, not planning and setting a date yet, i was in doubt. my actions would influence my surroundings. i thought if i get cancer, it will all be over and out of my control. kinda like the planet. no one could blame me, tell me it's gonna be ok, because it's terminal and out of my hands. maybe better than beams and some rope. i don't want to be ill, then end my illness and as a result make my friends and family ill. when justine sat there in the end, she was supportive. everyone else still had something to lose. the whatever you think fits, didn't made her (or me in my opinion and experience) optimistic, because there was nothing to be optimistic about, but she was now useful. being useful and comforting her sister, like she helped her when going in and out of depression. my sister helped and still helps me and i hope to help her some more too. more than now. maybe not just make her happy, but help and comfort her in a time of need, where my illness is useful for once. positive, not negative. now i don't feel optimistic or happy but get triggered positively by talking to my sister's children and the neighbours cat visiting me everyday. i don't want more right now. more than enough. play with the kids and the kitty and mostly hideaway listening to philosophical podcasts. not only the illness but also corona took away my former life and surely also something from everyone else's life. maybe first only your work, then savings, then made you ill and later mentally ill. locked inside. no contacts. no exercise. no hobbies. no parties. no social life. a downward spiral. actively trying to dig yourself out, but going deeper as a result. then remaining passive. petrified. getting a little better and some stuff done. petrified again. like von trier and his depression i assume. it's our luck that he makes use of his depression and gives us not an explanation, but attempts to make us feel and experience his feeling of depression and a film that connects and stays with us. i saw the film a decade ago, so i might be very wrong about von trier's intentions, but this stuck somehow with me. thanks to lars, who makes you want to turn away and applaud at the same time, which i prefer to being smiled at, while they give you the finger behind their back. you might not like his films, walk out of the cinema, but they will stay with you. and also thanks to zizek for making me and my brain go on exploration with your guidance.

[KarlHessey-dbmf]

Seeing a planet that close would be beautiful, before we die we get to see a beautiful display in the sky

[oa]

but if you look closely at the ending even Justine begins to show anxiety on her face right at the very end. Only the child is calm. Perhaps Lars is suggesting even the most hopeless shopenhauerian among us have some emotional tether to life, and that only the child, the ignorant, can be blissful, that there is no way to confront the end of life as we know it with any kind of peace despite ur disposition

[tonykasslin]

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han writes about this in "The Agony of Eros" (Agonie des Eros 2012), and explains it in a similar way as Zizek. Han: "Paradoxically, the approach of death animates Justine. It opens her to the Other. Liberated from narcissistic captivity, Justine also devotes caring attention to her sister and her sister's son. The film's real magic lies in Justine's miraculous transformation from a depressive into a lover." (2017: 5)

[jagmarz]

Melancholy is that feeling I have when I know that everyone's got to die, and even the world's going to end some day, and although it hurts, I can see how that's a critical part of the stunning beauty of the Universe. And I'm ok with that.

[reiver]

He is talking about authentic being towards death.(cf. Heidegger) When we accept the the inevitability of our own annihilation, the finitude of our own personal existence and can face the inevitable anxiety with courage, the result is not nihilism but rather a clearing out of triviality and the ability to focus on what truly matters to us and to grasp the nettle firmly and engage with life in a full and meaningful fashion.

[dubbermagoo]

basically buddhism and bushido. Acceptance of inevitable death leads to rejection of the self, which can remove fear and doubt.

[SashkoGrigoriev]

I want more of this man on BigThink! :)

[freddyochoa]

The difference is that in Melancholia people have that feeling all the time, not only when the end is near so they will always have that motivation on every action taken deep in their hearts.

[hummingpylon]

I agree. I think Lars said that depressed people cope better with tragedy. I would think it is because they are already there, and also the end also means the end to their suffering, and they don't feel like they got any stake in the world anyway. If you got nothing to lose, the end can be an experience more meaningful than life and survival. Or rather there is a factor of survival in dying, the survival of the soul...

[RaspadLB]

If life was a computer game, this guy would be undead warlock spamming only drain life spell. Still I have a huge respect for him.

[ThatsWhatSheSaid-]

I think it was more of an impartial documentary tbh. Like "No matter how you approach life; how you feel - the end is the same, and unavoidable." No one character came out better than the other. None of their actions mattered in the slightest and no "right" or "wrong" actions were possible.

[DanielWFilms]

I'd also like to point out that Von Trier suffered a crippling depression that left him hospitalized for a period of his life. Antichrist was a product of the depths of his depression as he wrote and directed it during this period. He was tortured mentally, and it shows. However, Melancholia is produced after this major period of depression when he is "healthier". The optimism here lies in the fact that acceptance breeds change; that acknowledging our fears produces the platform for inner peace.

[Yoububehahaha]

I've been suffering with medical issues for about 7 years now, every day I wake up I am surprised to be alive, and even more surprised that I still enjoy life.

Or at least I see life for what it truly is.

This is not something I can explain, you must wait to experience true suffering in order get the most out of life.

This may not sound optimistic but here it is; I hope you all live long enough to suffer as beautifully as I have.