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An Evil King `Thing', Rising, Falling and Multiplying in Trucker Culture

David Sköld

Lund University, Lund, Sweden, erikdavidskold{at}gmail.com

Paraphrasing Slavoj Zizek (1991: 65), the paper proposes that: `The Scania Truck does not exist': it is nothing but `the symptom of passionate users', its power of fascination masks the void of its nonexistence'. Along the same line of reasoning, it argues, again paraphrasing Zizek, that `the customized Scania truck is becoming the sinthome of its user'. (c.f. Zizek, 1991: 137). The paper does so by digging into a customizing discourse found in trucker media; by describing some of the customizing endeavours of Lennart Källström, a passionate truck owner, haulier and waste management entrepreneur; and by describing the rise and fall of a customizing King, and the Evil which befalls him in this process. The main purpose of the paper is to explore the workings and the effects of a circular movement of desire, fantasy and ideology at play in truck design development. As is already evident, Zizek is the main support in this endeavour.

Key Words: aesthetics • creativity • desire • fantasy • jouissance • Lacan • post-production • Zizek

Organization, Vol. 16, No. 2, 249-266 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1350508408100477
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