Let Them Rot

What is the relation between family misfortune and desire? Why must we bury the dead? What is to come for those unburied? How to distinguish the endless stream of graphic violence from violence that goes straight to the bone? How does language make up not only the law, but also unwritten laws? In Let Them Rot Alenka Zupancic takes up the ancient figure of Antigone and finds a blueprint for the politics of desire. Not desire as consumption, enjoying what is offered, but desire s oblivion to what came before. Such politics says: ‘‘No, this world must end and I will be the embodiment of that end.‘‘ This is not self-satisfied destruction for destruction‘‘s sake; it is existence with consequences beyond the predictable. Zupancic asks: ‘‘Why desire?‘‘ And this question of desire, which may be the only question, takes the form of a ‘‘no‘‘ that is also an ‘‘I.‘‘ ‘‘Writing my book on Antigone, I thought: ‘‘There we go, the subject is closed - let‘‘s go to sleep.‘‘ And then along came Zupancic with her take and compelled me to rethink everything I did. In other words - and this is difficult for me to say - she is better than me here.‘‘ - Slavoj Zizek