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New York (1997) photo by Jean Baudrillard from International Journal of Baudrillard Studies
The Death of Jean Baudrillard Did Not Take PlaceThe Illusion of the Endby Jean BaudrillardStanford University Press January 1995, 123 pages, $18.95 [30 March 2007] by G. Christopher WilliamsThe controversial French philosopher's legacy has been tarnished by reductionist readings of his work, generated precisely by the tendencies of the mass media he sought to illuminate.
Very nice piece. I will miss the aphoristic, playful humor of Baudrillard’s writing, the sneak-attacks of his words. He reminded me of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who, strangely, also wrote aphoristically about slippages between the Real and the real. I’ll also miss the anger Baudrillard aroused in my professional-philosopher colleagues, who really, really, disliked him. Baudrillard’s ideas were worth fighting over. I’ll miss those fights. Comment by Nicholas Rombes from University of Detroit Mercy — March 31, 2007 @ 4:56 pm Well done. I’m too poorly versed in the man’s work to offer any of my own insights, but I enjoyed the piece. If it’s any consolation, I heard of Baudrillard’s death before Anna Nicole Smtih’s. Comment by Brandon Ghislain — April 1, 2007 @ 10:48 pm <font face"times" size="4"> Resquiat in Pace Comment by Oracle Arion from hyperreality — December 13, 2007 @ 10:16 am — PopMatters sponsor —‘The need to speak, even if one has nothing to say, becomes more pressing when one has nothing to say, just as the will to live becomes more urgent when life has lost its meaning.’
Jean Baudrillard
Follow The Precession of Simulacra link.
Comment by The Precession of Simulacra from Oracle Arion — December 13, 2007 @ 10:28 am Related articles
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Review: Passwords by Jean BaudrillardRahul Gairola21.Jan.04 The concepts at the heart of Baudrillard's book invoke, reflect, subvert, and play with one another, sometimes compelling the careful reader to read the book backwards so that she or he might then begin reading forwards again.
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Great work on this piece, Christopher. I’ll admit that I was a little cautious when I saw it—in part because I was one of “those graduate students”, and in part because there are so many facile attempts at explanation in popular media—but you did a nice job tackling the man rather than trying to rework his subjects. Frankly, as someone with a passing interest in contemporary philosophy, it has always baffled me why academics treat one of their own achieving pop star status as a betrayal. If the ideas of said philosophy are relevant and worth discussing, shouldn’t it be encouraged to have figureheads who bring those discussions into the public sphere—the pop sphere? If life deserves to be examined, shouldn’t that be encouraged in everyone, and not so-called specialists? While I don’t necessarily hold to the carbon-copy notion of simulacra, I definitely hope there will continue to be more and more like him.
Comment by Patrick Schabe — March 30, 2007 @ 8:57 am