Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Nerd Notes: Crankiest Professor Ever

Via Tim Blair, meet London-based academic Slavoj Zizek. In an interview he did with the Guardian paper, he gave some interesting answers such as:

Q: What makes you depressed?

A: Seeing stupid people happy.

Q: What do you owe your parents?

A: Nothing, I hope. I didn't spend a minute bemoaning their death.

Q: What does love feel like?

A: Like a great misfortune, a monstrous parasite, a permanent state of emergency that ruins all small pleasures.

Q: What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

A: That life is a stupid, meaningless thing that has nothing to teach you.


Wow, how much venom and misanthropy can a person spew during just one interview? This has to be my favorite answer, though:

Q: What is the worst job you've done?

A: Teaching. I hate students, they are (as all people) mostly stupid and boring.


Good grief! What a horrid, pretentious, arrogant thing to say.

I'm tempted to believe this entire interview is just a hoax playing with the worst stereotypes of academics, professors, and Nerd Lords, but it doesn't seem to be.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The main thing life has taught me is that people like this are crying out to be made fun of in that ambiguous, face-to-face way that doesn't quite offend but afterward leaves them wondering if they should be offended.