How to Read Lacan (click to read online)
by
Slavoj Zizek
It is easy, enjoyable, a little too repetitive of his other work, but a great intro to Lacan's main concepts through an exercise of "reading with Lacan"...
Here's a beautiful quote from Janet Malcolm (1994: 172) -also quoted in the book...
The preservation of the unsent letter is its arresting feature. Neither the writing nor the sending is remarkable (we often make drafts of letters and discard them), but the gesture of keeping the message when we have no intention of sending it. By saving the letter, we are in some sense 'sending' it after all. We are not relinquishing our idea or dismissing it as foolish or unworthy (as we do when we tear up a letter); on the contrary, we are giving it an extra vote of confidence. We are, in effect, saying that our idea is too precious to be entrusted to the gaze of the actual addressee, who may not grasp its worth, so we 'send' it to his equivalent in fantasy, on whom we can absolutely count for an understanding and appreciative reading.
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