SHOUT TO THE TOP

Friedrich von Raumer, Professor of History in Breslau, on G.W.F. Hegel, 1816:

"His conversation is fluent and sensible, so I cannot believe that his lectures would lack these qualities. To be sure, there is false pathos, shouting, and roaring, little jokes, digressions, half-true comparisons, one-sided comparisons with the present, arrogant sef-praise ... and this attracts masses of students."



Rex Butler on Slavoj Zizek, 2005:

"It really is the most extraordinary spectacle, seeing Zizek lecture. There he stands, this wildly gesticulating, bear-like man, tugging his beard and shirt, dark circles of sweat growing beneath his armpits, his neatly combed hair growing lank and dishevelled, his eyes staring blindly around the room. He speaks rapidly through a strong Central European accent and a lisp, constantly circling back upon himself to try to make himself clearer, threatening never to stop. We feel he is making the same point over and over, but we cannot quite grasp it ... it is only the activity of theorizing that saves him, saves him from the very thing his theorizing brings about."