Surplus-Enjoyment: A Guide for the Non-Perplexed

斯拉沃热·齐泽克Shanghai Wenhui Publishing House2025

Rating 3.8
Word count
309K words
Chapters
6
ISBN
9787549644834

Tags

Philosophy and Religion Western Philosophy Commercial SocietyPolitical EconomyConsumer SocietyCapitalismPsychological IssuesNihilismIdentity ConstructionHegelian DialecticCore ConceptsPost-Pandemic Era

Summary

The Chinese translation of Slavoj Žižek's Surplus-Enjoyment: A Guide for the Non-Perplexed. The book's starting point is that today, with an unprecedented abundance of channels for consumption—music, games, dating, sexual experience, and even various identities all within reach—people feel more easily depressed, dissatisfied, escapist, and nihilistic than ever. Žižek argues that "the more we enjoy, the more nihilistic we become" is not an individual psychological problem but a structural mechanism. The book draws on three frameworks—Lacanian psychoanalysis, Hegelian dialectics, and Marxist political economy—to argue that, on one hand, desire is essentially lack, and no external object can fully fill it, so satisfaction always slides into new want; on the other hand, contemporary commercial society constantly produces "false desires," packaging free choice as a tool for manipulating desire and expanding reproduction, so that the subject completes self-exploitation "voluntarily." Centering on the core concept of "surplus-enjoyment," Žižek discusses how people in the post-pandemic era derive pleasure from disaster, confrontation, and chaos while losing revolutionary desire. The book draws extensively on contemporary cultural texts, including Squid Game, Joker, The Handmaid's Tale, and Solaris, and touches on issues such as the privatization of the internet commons, digital feudalism, ecological crisis, identity politics, and sexual difference. The book consists of an overture, three main chapters, and a finale; the finale raises "subjective lack" (revolutionary self-lack) to a political category, arguing that rather than endlessly satisfying desire, one should sustain a sense of lack and immerse oneself deeply in what one is willing to devote oneself to, thereby seeking true freedom beyond the cycle of alienation.

Editor's review

如果你以为这是一本“如何更快乐”的自助书，会很快被齐泽克劝退；它要做的恰恰是把“走出享乐与虚无”改成“看清自己正走进去”。全书的核心概念“剩余享乐”极具解释力：快感与压抑是同一枚硬币的两面，系统不必强迫你服从，只要替你设定好“你想享受的东西”，你就会心甘情愿地自我剥削。这一机制解释了许多日常体验——明知下一条短视频更烂却停不下来，付款成功的满足在提示音后立刻消散，拥抱毛绒玩具时把质疑的刺一并磨平。 本书延续齐泽克一贯的写法：一边在拉康、黑格尔、马克思之间来回穿行，一边把《鱿鱼游戏》《小丑》《使女的故事》《索拉里斯星》拽进理论现场。真正吸引人的，是他对后疫情时代灾难、狂欢与顺从之间隐秘关系的观察，以及终曲那句近乎冷酷的劝告——抱着“激烈而冷漠的求生精神”继续活下去。需要注意的是，本书读起来并不轻省，德式长句、术语密度与“绕圈子”式论证都需要耐心；译文由齐泽克在中国最早的译介者季广茂承担，并附有导读与大量注释，仍建议边读边做笔记。它不是给答案的书，而是把问题摊开给人看的书。

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Reading tips

  1. 先读序曲与终曲，把握“剩余享乐”和“主体性匮乏”两个核心提法，再回头读三章正文
  2. 准备一份术语小抄：享乐（jouissance）、大他者、超我、剩余、匮乏，遇到卡壳处翻注释
  3. 每读完一章，用一部自己熟悉的剧集或App体验去对应分析一次，比硬啃理论更有效
  4. 本书与作者《意识形态的崇高客体》《视差之见》可对照阅读，理解其理论框架的延续与变化

About the publisher

Shanghai Wenhui Publishing House China · Founded in 1985

Shanghai Wenhui Publishing House focuses on foreign literature, science fiction, and quality fiction. Its catalogue of 218 titles spans literature, mystery and detective fiction, and social novels. Representative books include Middlemarch, The Grapes of Wrath, Snow Country, and The Complete Short Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, as well as Gu Long's Happy Heroes and Remarks on Lyrics in the World. In translation, translators such as Chen Jinhui, Chen Zongchen, Huang Yuesheng, and Qin Peng work alongside authors including George Eliot, John Steinbeck, Yasunari Kawabata, and Arthur C. Clarke, giving the press a profile that balances literary classics and genre fiction. Public information on its other publishing areas is limited.

Contents

  1. Overture: Living in an Inverted World: From Catastrophe to Apocalypse... and Then the Cycle; The Surprising Acquisition of Pleasure; 2+a; "Good Luck, Mr. Hegel!"
  2. Chapter 1 Where Is the Crack? Marx, Capitalism, and Ecology: Neoconservative Communism; Hegel in the Critique of Political Economy; Real Life and Disembodied Subjectivity; The Ecological Proletariat and the Limits of Valorization; No Science, No Capitalism, and No Way Out; Is Abstract Labor Universal? Workers or the Worker? Fiction and Reality / Reality Within Fiction; The Emancipatory Potential Contained in Capitalist Madness; Ecology with Alienation; The Final Exit of Communism
  3. Chapter 2 Non-Bipolar Difference? Psychoanalysis, Politics, and Philosophy: Critique of the Critique; "They Are All Worse!"; A Critique of Lacanian Ideology; The (Malicious) Political Neutrality of the Psychoanalyst; The Limits of Historicization; The Formula of Sexuation; The Vicissitudes of Truth; Transgender and Cisgender; Sexual Difference Is Not Binary; From Narrow Queer Theory to Broad Queer Theory; Why There Is No True Love Without Betrayal; Through Lubitsch's Mirror...
  4. Chapter 3 Surplus Enjoyment, or, Why We Enjoy Oppression: Vikings, Solaris, Katla: The Big Other and Its Rise and Fall; The Superego Is Born from the Fracture of the Law; From Authority to Permissiveness... and Back from Permissiveness to Authority; No Freedom Without Impossibility; Repression, Oppression, and Depression; So What Is Surplus Enjoyment? Enjoyment Alienation; Martin Luther as a Film Noir Character; Longing for No Mother
  5. Finale: The Lack of Subjectivity as a Political Category: The Two Ends of Philosophy; Humanity Is a Disaster; "We Must Survive, Until We Die"; From Being-Toward-Death to Immortality; Revolutionary Self-Lack
  6. Translator's Afterword

FAQ

这本书是教人如何摆脱享乐、获得幸福吗？ 并非如此。齐泽克不提供“解药”，而是剖析越享乐越虚无的结构性机制。他给的出路是停止对欲望无休止的满足、保持匮乏感，并深入沉浸于自己甘愿献身的事物，而不是追求更多快感。
没有哲学基础能读懂吗？ 可以有难度地读懂。中文版附有导读和四百余条注释，季广茂的译本也尽量保留了原文讨论脉络；但拉康、黑格尔术语密集，完全没有基础的读者建议先补一点精神分析常识，或与读书会共读。
这本书和原书《Surplus-Enjoyment》是什么关系？ 本版即该英文原著的简体中文译本，据 Bloomsbury 2022 年版译出，由文汇出版社（读客文化出品）于2025年出版，译者为季广茂。书中案例与章节结构与英文原版一致。
书里提到哪些影视和文化作品？ 据出版方与书评资料，书中讨论涉及《鱿鱼游戏》《小丑》《使女的故事》《索拉里斯星》等，也涉及互联网公地私有化、数字封建主义、身份政治与性别差异等当代议题，均作为理论分析的例证出现。
适合作为礼物送给对哲学感兴趣的朋友吗？ 可以，但需确认对方对欧陆哲学尤其是拉康精神分析有兴趣。若朋友只是好奇“如何对抗虚无”，可能会被术语密度劝退；书本身装帧平装，适合自读和批注。

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About the author

斯拉沃热·齐泽克 Author

Slavoj Žižek is a contemporary Western philosopher and cultural critic who remains active in both fields; public information about his nationality, dates of birth and death, and other personal background is limited. This catalog contains two of his works, The Enjoyment and Nothingness (Exclusive First Release) and The Abyss of Freedom, commonly classified under Eastern Philosophy and Western Philosophy. These works suggest that his writing often centers on philosophical themes such as enjoyment, freedom, and nothingness, while also drawing on psychoanalysis and cultural criticism. His prose is highly speculative and shows a talent for addressing difficult theory in an accessible, even playful manner, which has earned him attention among both academics and general readers. It should be noted that this page makes no guesses about his education, positions, or specific experiences; it presents only his intellectual concerns and writing style as reflected in the available bibliographic information.