Jean Baudrillard has died.
Mar. 8th, 2007 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
likethebeerhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/07/AR2007030700949.html
It's been a long time since I have thought that much about him, although I grooved a lot on his philosophical stuff. Might be the reason why I eschewed taking photos for a really long time. No, scratch that: his comments were the reason why I didn't take photos for a long time. I was afraid of reliving my experience only through photographs (although, part of my job now is about recording things, so I do take a lot of photos; and I look at old photos alllll the time).
I'm not crazy about his book, America, b/c it seemed to be fixated on saying, "America is all about people driving really fast in their cars through the desert." Ok. You go, Jean.
I forgot that he was behind hyperreality, although it was Umberto Eco that wrote the book, Travels in Hyperreality and goodness knows, the man has died and people having been using The Matrix as a touchstone for explaining him. Although Baudrillard seems to be the guy behind simulacra, which I still think of. That's RIGHT, shit! I did a paper in my 2nd year of grad school entitled something like, "Hyperreality at the Court of Versailles" (during the reign of Louis XVI). Great idea; sucky paper (I researched and researched and was totally stressed and wrote most of the paper--only like 20 pages--in, like, a day--stupid college shit, man--but I was totally stressed).
Do I live a hyperreal life now? Maybe what I live is much simpler: when I bring people on tour, I simply "elide" the unpleasantries. The rest is sleight of hand.
It's been a long time since I have thought that much about him, although I grooved a lot on his philosophical stuff. Might be the reason why I eschewed taking photos for a really long time. No, scratch that: his comments were the reason why I didn't take photos for a long time. I was afraid of reliving my experience only through photographs (although, part of my job now is about recording things, so I do take a lot of photos; and I look at old photos alllll the time).
I'm not crazy about his book, America, b/c it seemed to be fixated on saying, "America is all about people driving really fast in their cars through the desert." Ok. You go, Jean.
I forgot that he was behind hyperreality, although it was Umberto Eco that wrote the book, Travels in Hyperreality and goodness knows, the man has died and people having been using The Matrix as a touchstone for explaining him. Although Baudrillard seems to be the guy behind simulacra, which I still think of. That's RIGHT, shit! I did a paper in my 2nd year of grad school entitled something like, "Hyperreality at the Court of Versailles" (during the reign of Louis XVI). Great idea; sucky paper (I researched and researched and was totally stressed and wrote most of the paper--only like 20 pages--in, like, a day--stupid college shit, man--but I was totally stressed).
Do I live a hyperreal life now? Maybe what I live is much simpler: when I bring people on tour, I simply "elide" the unpleasantries. The rest is sleight of hand.
