« Kintaro fights the Earth-Spider | main | adventu-ramen »
Baudrillard, Simulations
22 Mar 07
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulations. Trans. Paul Foss, Paul Patton, and Philip Beitchman. New York: Semiotext(e), 1983.
I seem to recall, deep in my personal history, studying reading comprehension at teachers college and running across a model for reading that outlined six levels of comprehension. I can’t remember exactly what they were, and frankly don’t care to try to look them up.
Reading Baudrillard, I think there must be a lost, seventh level. I know what all the words mean, I really do! And I even know what they mean when you put them together. And I should say his ideas, as I understand them, aren’t entirely new to me—it’s remarkable the extent to which he’s influenced others I have read. But like so many of those French guys, he writes densely and lets the reader do a considerable amount of the work.
Funny thing is, there is an excitement to it. That might be hard to explain, but I find there’s a flow to his thoughts, and so many of his examples are contemporaneous to my life (Disneyland, Watergate, the Tasaday) that I find it fun and relevant even when I know I’m missing the odd nuance. Or maybe even the odd central point. Here’s a Disneyland bit I liked that captures the flavour of this book nicely:
Disneyland is there to conceal the fact that it is the “real” country, all of “real” America, which is Disneyland (just as prisons are there to conceal the fact that it is the country in its entirety, in its banal omnipresence, which is carceral). Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, when in fact all of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of the hyperreal and of simulation. (25)
See what I mean? I love the way the parenthetical bit about prisons supports the Disneyland example, introduces a whole new host of assumptions, and adds that little “banal omnipresence” spin.
Posted by pzed on March 22, 2007 at 9.28pm
Categories: fragments, scripture
