Approach, Principles, and Style Guide

Tags: metacommentary

Style

(Content in round brackets) reflect content from the original source, with brackets used for informational organization and to honor interjections.
[Non-italicized content in square brackets] reflect editorial changes made in order to clarify vague points (e.g., replacing 'this' or 'it' with the referent).
[Italicized content in square brackets] reflect supplemental information or substantial changes (see below).
I do my best to ascertain terms from languages other than English by cross-referencing with dictionaries, but that can only go so far, so please be patient with me if there are errors there.

Approach

Anybody familiar with Lacan knows that transcription is not a neutral act; even seemingly minor judgements of interpretation bump against the radical gap between the subject of enunciation and enunciated content.

As such, there's always room when somebody steps into an editorial position to weasel my own personal imaginary identifications into somebody else's speech under the guise of ostensibly neutral clerical changes. It's clear to me that the only way I might absolutely avoid this is to transcribe Zizek's lectures one-to-one, down to every vocal tic. However, spoken discourse in almost all cases becomes nigh unintelligible once written down, and part of my goal in putting all these works together is to transfer the ideas found in his video content into a form that's easier to reference, cite, read, and so on.

I humbly request that you engage these transcriptions as a form of adaptation, with all the risks involved, and to go watch the original videos if you're suspicious of any of my changes. And I'll humbly offer that I am not here to 'better' anything, nor to posit myself as some sort of authority on any matter. More than anything, I have too much time, a compulsion to type, and a terrible admiration of Zizek's work.