A review by cantordustbunnies
Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard

2.0

I can't help but feel that part of Baudrillard's fixation with and despair over a lack of reality may in part be due to his own attitudes and behaviors. His writing, while clearly intelligent, comes across more often than not as being highly affected. It is as though he is trying to bewilder the audience through deliberate obfuscation in order to construct a sense of prestige or even guru status. Postmodernists aren't kidding when they say that language is a weapon and is used by the strong to maintain their control, they are fixated on power. They openly attack those already in authority but sneakily don't openly admit that they themselves yearn to be in positions of cultural as well as political dominance and would have no qualms about using the same tactics they believe are all too real and bewail others for using. Baudrillard is no exception to other postmodernists in this regard. It is as though he is twisting himself into knots trying to figure out why he is dissatisfied without realizing that if he stopped posturing, stopped subscribing to these highly melodramatic, hyperbolic, avant-garde ideologies he would probably find the "real" that he is seeking. His writing can be wonderfully poetic but ultimately a lot of what he's really saying is downright silly. He was however incredibly beyond his time and speaks a lot about what is happening with the media and the internet before the internet even existed, which is a mark of genius. He has valid things to say about consumerism too, but so much of it is bogged down by his insufferably snotty style. I fully believe that Baudrillard is a genius and does have valuable insight, but I just sort of want to shake him and make him go to a therapeutic nature camp for a month and chop wood.