Ecrits: A Selection

Rating:
Summary: save your money
Review: I am a great fan of Bruce Fink whose own books give the non-clinician great insight into the clinical Lacan. He is one of those very rare Lacanians that can actually step outside the Lacanian vocabulary to say something. I was very optimistic about this new translation, however it doesn't seem to me to be a significantly better translation than the Sheridan one.

Rating:
Summary: If you want to read Lacan...Forget "Ecrits"
Review: If you want to read Lacan, forget all the confusing introductions by people like Zizek, Gallup et al. and absolutely don't bother with "Ecrits"--what you'll find there are dense rewritings of earlier speeches. Lacan was never a writer, he was a talker. And when he re-wrote his talk (ironically retitled as "Ecrits"), he packed years worth of insights into those pages. For those who already know his talk, the so-called "Seminars", "Ecrits" is a revelation. But for the neophyte, it can only bring frustration (hence an industry of "introductory" books I've told you to avoid). Instead of "Ecrits" then, begin where it all began...the Seminars, Paris, the 1950s where a who's-who of Paris intelligentia sit in to listen to the new kid on the block with his intriguing new back-to-basic reading of Freud. Actual transcriptions from his classes, they read like plays as Lacan interacts with his class. And like any teacher he begs his students to do only one thing: their homework! If he's going to talk about a particular essay by Freud, he expects you to read it. You also get group presentations by the students, question and answers and Lacan's facicious wit. Great fun. Seminars 1-3 are a breeze but beware, not all the volumes have been translated (nor transcribed--unpublished "bootlegs" can be found in Paris of seminars not yet in print and counter-volumes contesting the "standard" volumes' reliability in regards to the transcriptions). Seminar 4 will be out soon and 7 has been around for awhile. However, by Seminar 11 they become dense, dense, dense.

Rating:
Summary: If you want to read Lacan...Forget "Ecrits"
Review: If you want to read Lacan, forget all the confusing introductions by people like Zizek, Gallup et al. and absolutely don't bother with "Ecrits"--what you'll find there are dense rewritings of earlier speeches. Lacan was never a writer, he was a talker. And when he re-wrote his talk (ironically retitled as "Ecrits"), he packed years worth of insights into those pages. For those who already know his talk, the so-called "Seminars", "Ecrits" is a revelation. But for the neophyte, it can only bring frustration (hence an industry of "introductory" books I've told you to avoid). Instead of "Ecrits" then, begin where it all began...the Seminars, Paris, the 1950s where a who's-who of Paris intelligentia sit in to listen to the new kid on the block with his intriguing new back-to-basic reading of Freud. Actual transcriptions from his classes, they read like plays as Lacan interacts with his class. And like any teacher he begs his students to do only one thing: their homework! If he's going to talk about a particular essay by Freud, he expects you to read it. You also get group presentations by the students, question and answers and Lacan's facicious wit. Great fun. Seminars 1-3 are a breeze but beware, not all the volumes have been translated (nor transcribed--unpublished "bootlegs" can be found in Paris of seminars not yet in print and counter-volumes contesting the "standard" volumes' reliability in regards to the transcriptions). Seminar 4 will be out soon and 7 has been around for awhile. However, by Seminar 11 they become dense, dense, dense.

Rating:
Summary: An Essential Translation
Review: The experience of reading Lacan can be difficult for some, if not most of us; his work requires us to be active in our comprehension and imagination. For many years there has only been one translation of this important work, which has hampered Lacan's introduction to the Anglophone world. We now have a new translation and splendid it is! It does not give instant access to Lacan and the book still needs "active" reading, but it certainly helps. This modern translation - worked on by three people close to the work of Lacan - is fully annotated and referenced to give the reader a complete entry into the work as composed at the time (a hermeneutics of Lacan, perhaps?). We have many books about the work of this important psychoanalyst and thinker - but eventually the desire comes to read his original work and this translation certainly allows, supports and encourages this. This translation of the Ecrits will prove valuable for many years to come. Congatulations need to go to Fink, Fink and Grigg for their excellent work.