Simulacra and Simulations


i would propose that anyone who feels a slight unease about the way in which the world is today owes it to themselves to peruse the work of Jean Baudrillard. but i take no responsibility for what happens to you. Granted, baudrillard is obtuse, aloof, and generally disinterested in the traditional means of laying out a logical argument, but this is, of course, what makes it all so spectacular. His writing style, in the mode of Lacan, is a reflection of his critique.

in my humble estimation, this appears to be the quintessential Baudrillard offering. it is written at a turning point in his career (1981) where he moves beyond his marxist theorizing into the realm of the post-modern. consequently, he lays the foundations here for the wild rants to follow, for which we all know him best, and from which most of the quotes on my other page are drawn. One would be well served to approach Simulations and Simulacra before the more recent theoretical works, as it assumes less of the reader, actually approaches definitions of some of his central concepts (very out of line for JB), and really provides a nice overview of some things which he will get more involved in later on.

most interesting of all, perhaps, in the final essay, "On Nihilism", he outlines his position in regards to his own revelations, answering the question that all his readers must end up at: "well, ok, wiseguy, if that's how it is then what are you doing writing about it?"


some essential nuggets

(p.6)the successive phases of the images:

*the left, and journalism in particular, are caught in a particularly paradoxical trap by the order of simulacra: their accusations and pleas against the power structure serve only to lend credence to the continued existence of that structure as it was traditionally known, when in fact, it no longer exists *

*DETERRANCE*:"the neutral, implosive violence of metastable systems or systems in involution" (p.32)

as in: "the equilibrium of terror rests on the eternal deferral of the nuclear clash"

*The over-saturation of the social/annihilation of the other*: "When a system has absorbed everything, when one has added everything up, when nothing remains, the entire sum turns to the remainder and becomes the remainder." (p.144)

*WHAT IS LOST IS THE ORIGINAL*-- "which only a history itself nostalgic and retrospective can reconstitute as 'authentic'."(p.99) things are constructed from the outset interms of their infinitesimal reproduction; a transition which is noted by Benjamin in art, McLuhan in media, and it would seem fertile ground to dissect the transition from analog to digital musical recording as well (particularly for those of us with 'indie rock' sympathies)

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