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[[Image:ParallaxView.jpg|200px215px|right]]''The [[Parallax ]] View'' is Slavoj [[Zizek]]'s most substantial [[theoretical ]] [[work ]] to appear in many years; Zizek himself describes it as his magnum opus. Parallax can be defined as the [[apparent ]] [[displacement ]] of an [[object]], caused by a [[change ]] in observational [[position]]. Zizek is interested in the "parallax gap" separating two points between which no [[synthesis ]] or mediation is possible, linked by an "[[impossible ]] short circuit" of levels that can never meet. From this consideration of parallax, Zizek begins a rehabilitation of [[dialectical ]] [[materialism]].

Modes of parallax can be seen in different domains of today's [[theory]], from the wave-particle [[duality ]] in quantum [[physics ]] to the parallax of the [[unconscious ]] in [[Freudian ]] [[psychoanalysis ]] between [[interpretations ]] of the [[formation ]] of the unconscious and theories of [[drives]]. In ''The [[Parallax View]]'', Zizek, with his usual astonishing erudition, focuses on [[three ]] main modes of parallax: the [[ontological ]] [[difference]], the ultimate parallax that [[conditions ]] our very access to [[reality]]; the [[scientific ]] parallax, the irreducible gap between the phenomenal [[experience ]] of reality and its scientific explanation, which reaches its apogee in today's brain [[sciences ]] (according to which "nobody is home" in the skull, just stacks of brain meat--a condition Zizek calls "the unbearable lightness of [[being ]] no one"); and the [[political ]] parallax, the [[social ]] [[antagonism ]] that allows for no common ground. Between his discussions of these three modes, Zizek offers interludes that deal with more specific topics--including an [[ethical ]] act in a novel by Henry [[James ]] and anti-[[anti-Semitism]].

''The Parallax View'' not only expands Zizek's [[Lacanian]]-[[Hegelian ]] approach to new domains (notably cognitive [[brain sciences]]) but also provides the systematic exposition of the [[conceptual ]] framework that underlies his entire work. [[Philosophical ]] and theological [[analysis]], detailed readings of [[literature]], [[cinema]], and [[music ]] coexist with lively anecdotes and [[obscene ]] [[jokes]].

|width="100%"| [[Slavoj Žižek|Zizek, Slavoj]]. '''''[[The Parallax View|The Parallax View (Short Circuits)]]'''''. Cambridge: The MIT Press. February 17, 2006, Hardcover, 528 pages, [[Language ]] [[English]], ISBN: 0262240513. <small>Buy it at [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262240513/nosubject-20/ Amazon.com], [http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262240513/nosub07-20/ Amazon.ca], [http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262240513/nosub-21/ Amazon.de], [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262240513/nosubjencyofl-21/ Amazon.co.uk] or [http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262240513/nosub04-21/ Amazon.fr].</small>