A review by mummey
Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard

challenging reflective slow-paced

5.0

This work was written in 1981 and the examples it cites place the work firmly in that time period. The book’s ideas however, are as relevant today as they ever were. Whereas Baudrillard proposed the idea of Hyperreality to describe the inability to consciously distinguish between reality and a simulation that can be triggered by the saturation of mass media. The growth of social media, leading to the development of concepts such as the algorithmic timeline and coordinated disinformation campaigns, feel like Baudrillard’s ideas reaching extensions of his conclusions despite none of his essays here acknowledging the Internet and its (potential at the time) impact.

Reading Simulacra and Simulation in 2022 feels like being pulled out-of-time as someone who was born around the time of its original publication. The book has gained a secondary purpose as a historical reference for 1960-70s pop culture. The references to Watergate feel fresh. Crash refers not to the 1996 Cronenberg film but to the 1973 novel it was based on. May 1968 took a Wikipedia search to why it was a notable event.

This is the first book in a long time where I did not know what I was getting myself into beforehand and within fifty pages realizing that once I completed the book I would definitely be reading it again.