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The first full-length translation in English of an essential work
of postmodernist thought.
The hyperconformist simulation of pure non meaning.Reviewed by Mr., 2010-02-15
Read some angry philosophy and check out the alleged inspiration
for the matrix??
There is more information in our world but it has increasingly less
meaning. This book defines us what we are "Disaffected but
saturated." ...."All virtual modes of expression into advertising."
We have reached the level of "absolute advertising". The
advertisers have developed "neutral equivalent rhetoric".
"To the demand of being a subject he opposes, just as
obstinately, and efficaciously, an object's resistance, that is to
say,
exactly the opposite: childishness, hyperconformism, total
dependence,
passivity, idiocy. "
It is topics like this that probably made this book interesting to
the men who created the movie the Matrix although I believe the
author said that the matrix had nothing to do with his book which
is interesting in itself.
The part that stayed with me is Baudrillard 's comment on the film
Apocalypse Now The Simulacra and Simulation the was the power of
that fantastic film. Apocalypse Now was such a fantastic spectacle
that the power of special effects is so bewildering it shifts the
focus of the war to a simulated event.
Ballered mentions "The Matrix"
"The Father and the Mother have disappeared, not in the service of
an aleatory liberty of the subject, but in the service of a matrix
called code. No more mother, no more father: a matrix.
My favorite line of the book!!The Destroyer of Intensities
Advertising, therefore, like information: destroyer of intensities,
accelerator of inertia.
"Artifices of meaning and non-meaning repeated in it without
lassitude."
And worse and even more fake the advent of cloning.
"Cloning is thus the last stage of the history and modeling of the
body , the one at which reduced to its abstract and genetic
formula, the individual is destined for serial propagation."
"Pure non meaning."
muddled writingReviewed by Brandon A. Frankenfield, 2009-03-25
I read this based on the Matrix series, I suspect like most. While some of the under lying ideas were decent, I thought the writing style was painful and made reading longer than necessary. The writing style could be blamed on the translation, but never less it was a bit muddled.
MA(t)R(i)X : Not Sci-Fi, Post-MarxistReviewed by M. Ruiz, 2008-12-27
I read this little book years ago as part of my grad studies. It is
amazing to me how accurate many of Baudrillard's observations have
proven to be. It's as if he were some kind of Prophet (LOL!). But,
seriously, the loss of Reality is embodied in many different ways.
Our use of the Internet is the number one example. Many forms of
Virtual reality such as Reality TV, Chatrooms, Avatars, Online
dating, even the Fashion industry qualify.
As for Desert of the Real, let me give you this example: Just 2
weeks ago I arranged a flight and never had to make any contact
with anyone. I ordered my ticket online, printed it out, took it to
a self-check-in machine, punched in my numbers, got a boarding
pass, and walked on the plane. I have to admit I missed the human
contact. But such is the post-Modern condition. Of course, there
were people on the plane, but no individual attention, only contact
as a group. Another example: Video games, email, Demographics,
credit cards and direct deposit, Hollywood (originator of the
Virtual), Celebrity culture (ex: Why is it that when they use
certain people in a commercial they include the phrase "Real
people, not actors"? Aren't actors real?), Paparrazzi, the Digital
revolution. I could go on listing the many Virtual worlds we
inhabit, but suffice it to say they are self-generating!
If you plan on reading this book, do yourself a favor and forget
the Matrix (great movie, though). This is very real, Hyper-Real.
Read Marxist ideology and some Existentialist "Being and
Nothingness" Sartre, after reading Plato and Kant, and you wont be
so put off by the big ideas. Baudrillard describes a world based on
economic relationships only, and as such it is a system of objects,
based on nothing but Material gains. To many this describes an
impoverished system, morally bankrupt and soulless. Baudrillard is
suspicious and critical of Capitalist Democracies and Socialism. He
sometimes implies that Anarchy is the only way out of this
Technocratic Police State we have so far evolved into.
In this scenario the invisible ruling class controls the masses
with its House of Mirrors. Baudrillard seems to be saying we either
join the Dance of the Marionettes, revel in our liscentious
artificiality or smash the Glass House, being careful enough to
move out of the way of the falling shards. Shiva must be allowed
his Dance of Destruction before Vishnu can be born again to save
the world, sayeth Brahma. But even such an allusion to an Ancient
religion crumbles in the face of the Hyper-Real.
It is our physical connections to our bodies that we must not
negate, negotiate, or re-imagine (but, we do). And that is the
exchange-value for our status within this system of objects. It is
also the original site of our Loss. Only a jarring blow to the body
can wake us from our complacent complicity in doing violence to the
Real. Violence is as real as it gets. Do damage to a physical body
and there will be a reaction. Do violence to the State as a body
and you partake in the Virtual discourse that is Politics.
If only I could truly understand all the delicious ironies and
nuances in the French language. Bad translations are all we
deserve. Great writing, forever misread, generates even more
writing, cleverly said. I suspect the French don't truly want to be
translated by the English, but that is an old war and I've always
been the paranoid sort.
Not really as dense as many would have you believe. Blinded by the
Light is more like it. Keep reading.
Good read.Reviewed by Shinigami, 2008-10-03
If I hadn't already taken a look at nihilism and sociology years before, this book might've been too much of a read for me. I agree with all of what was covered. If it's a bit too "crazy" for you, try not to approach this book with your socialface on. Save that face for when you're with your friends, at work, or with family.
Caveat emptor(s):Reviewed by Alaric, 2008-07-07
1. The first two chapters are more or less verbatim permutations of
his 'Simulations', which this reviewer finds more substantial,
though this book contains a few elaborations that are left aching
for in Simulations. In every other respect, the first two chapters
say little that Baudrillard had not already accomplished in
previous publications in greater depth. The possible advantage
herein could be lie in that the less extensive use of Semiotical
and Marxist concepts may make this more accessible. But this
assumes the utility of accessibility. Elsewise, the Semiotext(e)
translation of 'Simulations' was more than adequate, you may just
want to start there.
2. This text will likely be indecipherable jabberwocky to anyone
not acquainted with Semiology and economics. Furthermore, if these
thing bore or otherwise hold no relevance to one, there is no real
point in reading any of Baudrillard unless one is in possession of
a patience willing to wade through some genre specific terminology
and verbiage to get some cultural and social analysis out of it;
those critiques stand on their own for the most part.
3. The Matrix: low relevance to the film, his earlier writings are
more radical.
4. Baudrillard has little reverence for the institutions of
Socialism and Democracy, reading this may infuriate or otherwise
cause a lapse of faith in those deus ex machinas.
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