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It was the second [[time ]] I had met Slavoj [[Zizek]], and in a way, the first was better. That was in Bayreuth [[three ]] years ago, when we were both attending the Ring cycle and staying in the same hotel. I didn't [[know ]] who he was and got talking to the bushy-bearded, denim-clad Zizek, so out of [[place ]] as he bustled around, head down, bumping into men in dinner jackets. He explained the Ring to me - something to do with the frigidity of Wotan's [[love ]] - and tried to convince me that Tristan und Isolde was a [[comedy ]] [[about ]] [[death ]] deferred. I was richly entertained for a week.

Now we are meeting in [[London]], at a coffee shop in Soho, where he expounds on an [[impossible ]] range of [[subjects ]] - the anti-imperialist [[message ]] of the [[film ]] 300, the earthquake in Kent (an appropriately Zizekian [[event]]), the unnatural [[nature ]] of nature, the revolutionary potential of [[slums]], why [[violence ]] is [[good ]] (the [[subject ]] of a forthcoming book). This time I know who he is - Slovenian [[philosopher]], cineaste, professional contrarian. He is feted as an "academic rock star", lectures to large audiences, writes books (33 at the last count), has explained the [[psychosexual ]] [[essence ]] of film in his three-part series of [[Pervert]]'s Guides, and is even the star of a documentary, simply called Zizek!, that tracks him across continents and attempts (not always successfully) to explain what he stands for.

He is on a private visit to London and expressly not here to boost Zizek!, which is showing this month at the ICA. "It's nicely done," he says, "but what I don't like is that it's about me. I [[hate ]] myself." This is a common theme - he claims to be a reluctant star, performing only to hide his insecurity and [[self]]-loathing. He also resents the way [[people ]] now expect a constant flow of [[jokes ]] and paradoxes from him. "The way some people celebrate me is really a disguised [[form ]] of an attack. 'He's a funny provocateur,' they say. 'He just likes to provoke.' I don't provoke. I'm very naive; I mean what I say."

How, then, does he see himself? "As an American preacher. I read somewhere that these evangelical preachers in the wild west had a strategy to convert the cowboys. They were very good magicians - these classical tricks, rabbits, hats, blah blah. The [[idea ]] is, first, through magical tricks, attract the attention, then the message. Maybe I'm going to do the same." But what is the message? "[[Pessimistic ]] leftism." [[Capitalism ]] is doomed; classical [[leftist ]] solutions are naive; we're screwed, basically, and he doesn't have an easy answer. Which, he says, is why he is a philosopher rather than a [[political ]] theorist.

Describing Zizek would [[test ]] a Flaubert. The [[words ]] flow unceasingly, delivered in rapid, strongly accented [[English]], accompanied by a sniff after every phrase. He runs his hand through his unkempt hair, squeezes his nose, gets carried away by the sheer velocity and manysidedness of his [[thought]]. Zizek the magician, always with a new trick. But I worry about him - this perpetual performance. What about the man behind the mask? He says he has no friends, only academic contacts; is on to his [[third ]] wife ("an Argentinian beauty"); is "too connected" to his seven-year-old son, with whom he has come to London. "I'm a bad [[father]]; I haven't learned just to live with him; I all the time worry, 'Is he enough amused?' It make you very tired." [[Another ]] performance; more [[magic]].

Zizek says the only time he feels truly relaxed and free is when he misses a connection and has to spend a night in an airport hotel. "That's pretty close to [[happiness ]] for me - I do [[nothing]]. If I'm in the US, I always watch the Weather Channel. I watch it for hours. It's [[ideal ]] for [[obsessional ]] neurotics: 'This storm is over, but look, look, another front is gathering up there.' I love it. There is always something to worry about, but at the same time you [[think ]] you have it under [[control]]."