A conversation between Simon Critchley and Manuela Kölke on April 26, 2015.
M: As lots of people give their testimony on the internet today, let’s join the mess: In Christian terms ‘to testify’ means to give a story of how one became Christian. Since I didn’t grow up in their company, please allow me to re-cycle this idea: What have you become through, with, besides The European Graduate School (EGS) that would enable you to actually give your testimony on? What do you believe EGS has done which deems particularly worth of sharing?
S: That a very good question. Ok, I would say, that I was a sceptic about EGS, when it was described to me by students, from looking at the website, there is all these famous people on the hill and on the mountains, they can’t be serious, it must be some ponzy scheme, some bizarre offshore money making venture. Then when I went in 2010, Wolfgang got in touch with me, and I met Wolfgang in New York and I liked Wolfgang immediately. He asked me to do it, and the problem was that Zizek couldn’t come that year. So I was gonna replace him and that pleased me in a kind of soothing way, being the Zizek substitute, because we don’t exactly get along. And I arrived and I didn’t have any expectations. Continue reading