The Parallax View is Slavoj Zizek's most substantial theo r etical wo r k 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 o r mediation is possible, linked by an ",impossible sho r t circuit", of levels that can never meet. fr om this consideration of parallax, Zizek begins a rehabilitation of dialectical materialism.Modes of parallax can be seen in different domains of today's theo r y, fr om the wave-particle duality in quantum physics to the parallax of the unconscious in Freudian psychoanalysis between interpretations of the fo r mation of the unconscious a nd theo r ies 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 a nd its scientific explanation, which reaches its apogee in today's brain sciences (acco r ding to which ",nobody is home", in the skull, just stacks of brain meat--a condition Zizek calls ",the unbearable lightness of being no one",), a nd the political parallax, the social antagonism that allows fo r no common ground. Between his discussions of these three modes, Zizek offers interludes that deal with mo r e specific topics--including an ethical act in a novel by Henry James a nd anti-anti-Semitism.The Parallax View not only expa nds Zizek's Lacanian-Hegelian approach to new domains (notably cognitive brain sciences) but also provides the systematic exposition of the conceptual framewo r k that underlies his entire wo r k. Philosophical a nd theological analysis, detailed readings of literature, cinema, a nd music coexist with lively anecdotes a nd obscene jokes.