Baudrillard's "precession of simulacra"

[Dracon II]

Such would be the successive stages of the image:

• it is the reflection of a profound reality
• it masks and denatures a profound reality
• it masks the absence of a profound reality
• it has no relation to any reality whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum

Discuss.

Assuming Baudrillard's stages are correct, according to what process would one stage be superseded by another?

[Kuciwalker]

Discuss.

Why?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Better to discuss his corollary (this is a paraphrase):

"California needs Disneyland so that they know the rest of the place is real."

I love Baudrillard, but isn't he over by now?

[Dracon II]

I love Baudrillard, but isn't he over by now?

Hmmm... I'd always seen the bulk of his theories as wild extrapolations that have yet to be fully realized... my mind seems to automatically throw most of his stuff into the science-fiction and "we'll see" basket... but maybe that's just me.

Why?

Why discuss Bush? Hell... why discuss Jesus? Baudrillard is infinitely more interesting...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Dracon II


Hmmm... I'd always seen the bulk of his theories as wild extrapolations that have yet to be fully realized... my mind seems to automatically throw most of his stuff into the science-fiction and "we'll see" basket... but maybe that's just me.

Actually, I think he probably was like this when his major writings (like Simulations) first appeared in the 70s. But he was so on-target, that now I read him and think, "Yes, we know that; what else ya got?"

Plus, with his recent book on 9/11, he's become a foolish, irritating parody of his once-excellent self.

Why discuss Bush? Hell... why discuss Jesus? Baudrillard is infinitely more interesting...

That, of course, is quite true...

[molly bloom]

Reading Baudrillard and getting one's penis stuck in a car door- about the same level of pleasure, but at least the car door experience teaches you not to do it again.

[Dracon II]

I'll have to jam my penis in a car door then... because Baudrillard is one of the most interesting writers I've encountered. A little difficult sometimes... but then so is most material from the french postmodern genre... like Deleuze & Guattari and Derrida (I'm reading Deleuze and Guattari at the moment)

[Buck Birdseed]

Call me a fuddle-brained Heideggerian, but I never understood what was wrong with creating new reality.

[Nostromo]

Ahhh! If you read Deleuze and Guattari, they'll teach you how to make yourself a body without organs... When I was younger, I loved this stuff...

[Agathon]

Baudrillaud? Heidegger?

Why not read some actual philosophy?