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one of postmod's founding texts, tr various hands
Difficult reading, but interesting insights (sometimes swallowed up
by verbiage)Reviewed by Steven A. Peterson, 2007-01-02
Jean Baudrillard, postmodern thinker, despairs; he claims, in
"Forget Foucault," that there is an "impossibility of any politics"
in our current situation. An important part of this context are
media simulations, of reality so obscured by the play of images
completely unrelated to any "reality" which might be out there that
we are hopelessly incapable of arriving at any judgments on which
to base political decisions and actions. Images on television and
in the movies and in other media are "floating signifiers," having
no real connection to concrete referents. The key concept
associated with Baudrillard is simulations and the simulacrum. He
begins by quoting Ecclesiastes: "The simulacrum is never that which
conceals the truth--it is the truth that conceals that there is
none. The simulacrum is true" (by the way, this quotation may be a
simulacrum; I could not find it in Ecclesiastes!). Simulations
began historically as replicas of the real, as reflections of
"reality." However, with time, simulations have become increasingly
detached from concrete "real" references. Simulations do not have
reference points or substance or any tie to "reality." Simulations
have become "a real without origin or reality"--a hyperreal. We
face a procession of images and simulations, and lose sight of the
simple fact that they are "floating signifiers." The simulacra
become real for us.
Put in post-structural (or postmodern) terms, the models created
are floating signifiers (simulations in Baudrillard's terms) which
structure people's discourse with one another and shape their
behavior. Images become crucial in politics. After presidential
debates or major policy speeches or elections, the "spin patrol"
gets going. These are the spokespersons of the parties or
candidates who try to convince the audience that their simulations
of the event are better than their opponents' simulations. In the
process, no one particularly cares what actually happened or what
was said. It is the simulations pushed by the various actors that
become the news.
Baudrillard's writing is challenging; many will write him off as an
unreadable crank. Nonetheless, the underlying concept of the
simulacrum is fascinating and generates much reflection. This is a
postmodern work that may actually speak to some real world issues.
. . .
Great book, bad edition.Reviewed by a reader, 2004-06-21
A very interesting read on the nature of reality. Baudrillard has a wonderful way of shuffling your thinking that can only be understood by reading his work first hand. I highly recommend this work, but I would suggest buying a different edition; the Semiotext edition fell to pieces the first time I read it.
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