- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Verso Press USA (Dec 1 1993)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0860915883
- ISBN-13: 978-0860915881
- Product Dimensions: 2 x 2 x 0.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 431 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #736,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Such quality and accuracy of insight indicate both the power of Baudrillard's initial position and the value of the French tradition of the grand philosophical analyst moving freely through the culture." - Brian Appleyard, The Spectator "We may not like Baudrillard's merciless honesty about the modern age, but we need his voice: the crow on the shoulder." - Pat Kane, The Scotsman
Book Description
Former professor and French author Jean Baudrillard contemplates post-1960's Western culture. He argues that the sexual revolution led not to liberation but to confused sexual identity; the revolution in art has resulted in indifference; the cybernetic revolution has blurred the distinction between man and machine; and the political revolution has led to pseudo politics. So, what is real?.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
easy fellas ....,
By
This review is from: Transparency Of Evil (Paperback)
This book is a good introduction to the contemporary Baudrillard, it is the last step as he leaves behind the last vestiges of Marxism and ventures into something original and "fatal". Contrary to the first reviewer, Baudrillard does not assume an "Essentialist" position (namely, providing necessary and sufficient conditions for 'such and such' to be 'such and such'). Instead he operates between wildly poetic description and (implied) moral condemnation.This means, mostly, that his comments on meaning and media are striking. It also means (unfortunately) that he provides little in the way of concrete or rigorous argumentation. Thankfully, this is not a problem if we consider the book a collection of inter-related aphorisms. In any case, Baudrillard "the poet" instead of Baudrillard "the theorist" allows us to conceptualize the expanding domain of media technologies in a different way. Whether there actually -is- anything to his claims will have to be shown by someone else. Since this book has had something of an influence on art criticism, I recommend it (albeit, with strong reservations about its basic claims)to anyone interested in cultural theory, the arts or any sort of contemporary "critical theory".
5.0 out of 5 stars
a virtuoso,yet probes the surface most of the time. . .,
By scarecrow "scarecrow" (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Transparency Of Evil (Paperback)
Sometimes a brilliant thinker as Baudrillard lets his own theories and perspectives confuse what is reality. Even though all the so-called revolutions and liberations have played themselves out, sexual,cybernetic,political,artistic, there are still powers in the world in all the above categories that are shaping the world in their own image. What is globalization? than the structure of the world surrounded with capital,shaped by it directing the poverty and foodchains of the world. I think Baudrillard forgets this, that there still is someone who creates and directs,and manipulates,and politicizes,and innoculates the populace to soften them up for consumption,controlled if possibly.This collection of essays are brilliant in that Baudrillard knows how to probe beneath the surface of art,of culture, like Madonna, Michael Jackson or current Hollywood, and the politics of Europe,of the demise of communism. He does it within a formant structure,with many levels of meaning spewed out in all directions. He is a virtuoso in that respect. What structures material reality? what directs it is not probed however with any degree of conviction and I think that is where his focus should be.You needn't be a Marxist to harbor these convictions simply ahumanist concerned with the direction of the world.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Facinating but reactionary,
By andrewk@bizwire.com (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Transparency Of Evil (Paperback)
Break out your dictionary; here is Baudrillard in all his ontogenetic glory. A wildly entertaining if ultimately depressing journey through the end of the millenia; what could be more shocking than to see J.B. bewail the lost hippy ideals of the sixties? Less a postmodernist than an essentialist critic of postmodernism, Baudrilard bwetrays a startling lack of imagination when it comes to technology and apparently views the computer screen as the fourth horseman of a Marxian apocalypse. Imagine if your kvetching grandfather had attended Yale in the '80s.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
