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Simulacra and Simulation

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This is by no means an easy text to read. For those unfamiliar with postmodern tropes-and especially those who have never read Baudrillard before-this text may seem especially daunting. I recommend that these people start with the essay entitled 'Simulacra and Science Fiction'. In this essay, Baudrillard details the three orders of simulacra: the first, natural simulacra, are operatic, founded on images, and aim at the restoration of "the ideal institution of nature made in God's image"; the second order are both productive and operative, based on energy, and work toward "a continuous globalization and expansion [and] an indefinite liberation of energy"; the third order, the simulacra of simulation, are "founded on information [and] total operationality, hyperreality, [and the] aim of total control" (121). The differences between the various simulacra exist in the distance between the real and the imaginary exhibited by each order. This illuminating interstice provides the locus for projecting critical activity and idealism. The first order maximizes the projection, allowing the utopia to stand in direct opposition to the real. The second order reduces this projection. Baudrillard describes it as a hyper-productive universe in which "science fiction adds the multiplication of its own possibilities" (122). As all previous models implode, the third order of simulacra witnesses the complete disappearance of the projection between reality and the imaginary as it becomes reabsorbed in simulation. To Baudrillard, this is the world in which we live: no more real, no more imaginary, no more fiction, just an endless regression of lost meaning with no foundation, or rather an endless precession of simulacra.

The book could easily be read like an apocalyptic Mythologies or a nihilistic Logic of Late Capitalism. In the first essay alone, 'The Precession of Simulacra', Baudrillard draws on such diverse cultural examples as the Tasaday Indians, the mummy of Ramses II, Watergate, and Disneyland. Bordering on the prophetic, Baudrillard heralds the end of Foucault's panopticon by referring to what was then (in the early seventies) only an experiment in TV verité, or what we now effortlessly refer to as reality TV. This first chapter heralds Baudrillard's "Anti-Copernican revolution": a world in which the universe presents itself as its own simulation, reality dissolves in its relentless self-representation, and Ockham's Razor loses its edge (42). As the book continues, Baudrillard presents history as false nostalgia, numbing fetishism, and desensitizing mythology. War and film find themselves conjoined by technology in 'Apocalypse Now'. 'The China Syndrome' further reveals the "telefission of the real and of the real world" as Baudrillard juxtaposes the images of the movie of the same title alongside those of the nuclear catastrophe of Three Mile Island, the latter occurring shortly after the release of the former. Defying causal logic, these events blur the distinction between symptom and effect (53-54). Baudrillard samples modern architecture ('The Beauborg Effect: Implosion and Deterrence') and current fiction ('Crash'), criticizes the effects of simulacra on historical tragedy ('Holocaust'), and, in 'Clone Story', warns of the dangers in allowing the reproduction of aesthetic forms in political forms. Through observing the media and the marketplace, Baudrillard sees society drifting away from the primary language of fascination as it becomes reinterpreted into a prolixity of discourse in which information far outnumbers meaning and semiology offers no recourse.

Most critics condemn this book for its dense prose, of which there is plenty. To escape this, the text should instead be read as a metafictional mystery novel. The crime Baudrillard reports is the dissolution of the real at the hands of productive operationality. As the precession of simulacra unfurls throughout the course of the book, the reader is provided with Lacanian quilting points, clues which lead forever forward while constantly trying to refer to the past. With every subsequent presentation of ordered simulacra in the hierarchy of simulation, readers find themselves referencing the previous order, only to be propelled farther from reality. One becomes lost in cultural references and almost gives up completely on the notion that reality exists at all. Clues implode upon themselves, losing all referentiality. Perpetrators are lost, or rather dispersed across the universe. We confront ambiguous motives, polyvalent modus operandi, and amorphous crime scenes. The crime itself becomes erased, the victim disappears, and what we are left with is 'The Spiraling Cadaver', "the simulacral side of dying games of knowledge and power" (149). Baudrillard, as the one who reported the original metacrime, offers up his own defense in 'On Nihilism': meaning is mortal while appearances are immortal, the latter remaining forever invulnerable to the nihilistic influences of the former. Referring once more to the beginning of the text, the reader finds renewed meaning in one of Baudrillard's first gestures toward the effects of simulacra. In 'The Precession of Simulacra', he shows that the police will react the same in a holdup regardless of whether it is real or simulated. As such, law and order remain nothing but simulation, therefore effectually nullifying any of our own detective abilities (19-22). Through investigating the crime, we lose all equivalence to the real, leaving the murder unsolvable. In order to fight the fascination we have with the mystery of reality's fate and the crime of its dissolution, we must marshal theoretical violence since truth no longer exists. Seduction, as opposed to fascination, begins through accepting the always already lost referential and the primacy of appearances.

Far from what the Wachowski brothers produce in The Matrix, Simulacra and Simulation is both unforgiving and relentless in its presentation of hyperreality. Unlike the movie, there is no transcendental savior, no neoplatonic allusions to ideals-only the stark unreality of our existence. Welcome to the real desert of the real.

Everything you have heard about this book is true. It is dense, complicated, annoyingly analytical, and fairly pointless. Yet it's also genius. To preface...Continental philosophy, in the past hundred years or so, has not been known for it's practical applications. Existentialism and Postmodernism are mental games for the Ivory Tower intellectual, sure. But that doesn't mean that they do not provide a model for looking at and thinking about the world that the average intellect can relate to and use. And this book is no exception to that. It IS dificult to understand, yes, but no where near as bad as most people in these reviews seem to think. Anyone with a basic understanding of Objectivism v. Subjectism, Platonism, and the empirical philosphers can get plenty out of it. The vocabulary is no worse then most other philosophy, and a lot less complicated then some (this isn't Kant). Baisically, Baudrillard shows us that reality no longer exists, and has been replaced by simulacra via the process of simulation, creatin what he calls the "hyperreal". It is a very enlightening read, and will make you really rethink how you view the world. The major problem with the book, as at least one other person has pointed out, is Baudrillard's cultural references. They are quite dated by this point, and you'll find yourself completely lost as to his point, since you can't relate to his subject. In the end though, it is a book that anyone interested in contemporary philosophy should read.

I had to read an essay of Baudrillard's for a class and even produced a paper about it - something about his ideas in The Day of the Locust. The grad student that taught the class was having this stuff presented to him as worthwhile, so his mouth was wide open for the nonsense that I poured in. My pap was easily digested and came out as a big solid log of an A+, which quite frankly made me a little ashamed and disappointed, because I knew my paper was bad. I started to suspect that maybe the people I wanted so hard to impress were perhaps not worth impressing, because the ideas that they seemed so enamored by frankly had no relevance to my life or anyone else's that I knew. They weren't even interesting as thought because they - and Baudrillard is a major offender - were written in prose so muddy and abstract that it was hard to tell if they were saying anything at all. Anyone who is going to express thoughts that are this - shall we call them "complex"? - is going to have to convince us first that his or her ideas are worth deciphering. And all Baudrillard seemed to offer was broadsides against such targets as money, in its various forms, and the real world, all of which have come in for quite a battering, especially in French, and should maybe be given a break.

Yes, if reality no longer exists then why write simulations that will add to that non-existence. This is the end of the road for French non-thought. Baudrillard brings together disparate items to make his case. I bought this book in order to get an idea of what postmodern philosophy has to say about the creation of models and their relation to the actual real product (mental or physical) that they are creating. This book was useless. Baudrillard says that models are to blame for the simulations that are created. This is Platonism devoid of the promise. For persons interested in the origins of statistical models this book is useless. For persons interested in the rhetoric of ekphrasis it is equally useless. If an image of a work of art (a model) is the basis for the ekphrastic in literary works, and the original model is not really "there", then what are people referring to? Baudrillard says nothing because there is no reference point. It is not clear if our simulations are to blame for the erasure of reality or what. The joke is on Baudrillard because he has to prove that what he is trying to prove doesn't exist. In the words of Gwendolyn from The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde) "Ah! that is purely a metaphysical speculation, and like most metaphysical speculations has very little reference at all to the actual facts of real life as we know them."

Don't waste you time or money.

Everything you have heard about this book is true. It is dense, complicated, annoyingly analytical, and fairly pointless. Yet it's also genius. To preface...Continental philosophy, in the past hundred years or so, has not been known for it's practical applications. Existentialism and Postmodernism are mental games for the Ivory Tower intellectual, sure. But that doesn't mean that they do not provide a model for looking at and thinking about the world that the average intellect can relate to and use. And this book is no exception to that. It IS dificult to understand, yes, but no where near as bad as most people in these reviews seem to think. Anyone with a basic understanding of Objectivism v. Subjectism, Platonism, and the empirical philosphers can get plenty out of it. The vocabulary is no worse then most other philosophy, and a lot less complicated then some (this isn't Kant). Baisically, Baudrillard shows us that reality no longer exists, and has been replaced by simulacra via the process of simulation, creatin what he calls the "hyperreal". It is a very enlightening read, and will make you really rethink how you view the world. The major problem with the book, as at least one other person has pointed out, is Baudrillard's cultural references. They are quite dated by this point, and you'll find yourself completely lost as to his point, since you can't relate to his subject. In the end though, it is a book that anyone interested in contemporary philosophy should read.

Baudrillard, a false prophet of mobius confers his subaltern eschatology in reference to the social production of subjectivities. His rigid valorization of metonmymic continuity can only be viewed as transgressive (p. 99) One could omit the penury of intellectual rectitude and bask in his aureole of metadiscourse. If you understand what I have written up to this point, you will enjoy this book. I recommend it as a handbook of pseudo-intellectualism.

Yes "Similacra And Simulation" does appear in the Matrix. probably like the rest of you nuts, I ordered it on line the same night I slowed down that scene to see what Neo was reading in his "cave" and have read it a few times since.I'm wondering if anyone else noticed that the Directors, although perhaps influenced by this book, seemed more influenced by Platonic idealism and the Christ assention myth. Neo is the lone soul in the cave that goes into the light after years of feeling that something wasn't right in his guts and mind. With the help of his soon to be deciples he leaves the world of shadow and illusion for reality. One can also find the Christ myth in Neo's assention at the end of the film having been deemed "The One". Now getting back to the book. Neither Platonic idealism nor Christ-like assention jibe with the theory in S&S. B. claims that everything is a copy of a copy adinfinitum. Neo finds on the other hand that there IS a reality but that it needs uncovering. The Christ myth is a million mile away from being a posability in Baudrilliard's "world" where trancendence is impossible. Also if you read the essay "Crash" about Ballard's excellent 1973 novel you will find that B. would find "Matrix" in it's overall themes to be a bit old-school:

"This is what distinguishes "Crash" from all science fiction...Which...still revolves around the old function/disfunction, which it projects into the future along the same lines of force and the same finalities that are those of the normal universe."

Speaking of sci-fi, this reader's humble suggestion is to read Baudrilliard as such.

Culture is made up of communication process. And all forms of communication are based on the production and consumption of signs. Thus there is no intrinsic division between ¡®reality¡¯ and symbolic representation. Humankind has existed in and acted through a symbolic environment. But we tend to distinguish reality from representation. Nevertheless, the advent of electric media like TV, computer, film, and multimedia, such a distinction become increasingly blurred away. This is the context where Baudrillard gained the popularity. But I disagree with him. According to Giddens, day-to-day life premised on distinction of presence and absence. Presence is a time-space notion, just as absence can refer to distances in time and space. All social interactions intermingle presence and absence. We are not confusing Mr. Bush on TV from real Bush, although we¡¯ve never met him and he is not here. But the point of Baudrillard is that Bush on TV is real Bush. Yep. We consume the virtual reality on computer, images of film not as representation of some other real thing, but as it is. But we could distinguish absent Bush (image on TV) from present Bush at the White House. If one could not do so, he must be mad.
Baudrillard¡¯s proposition has some good points on the events in cultural domain. But he goes too far.

a fine manuscript in every sense and now the honor and distinction of a major motion picture as well? hurrah! i don't see any Myth of Sisyphus II coing out anytime soon and with Matrix 2+3 on their way, Baurillard may become our most celebrated philosopher since Moby. those who say otherwise pah! and pooh on mr.Sept 28 poster! your saucy insouciance _will not fly_ in here! take your roland barthes dreck back to the lavatory from whence you came!

This, along with Lyotard's _The Postmodern Condition_, is perhaps one of the most famous works ever written by a Postmodern philosopher. It is well-researched and well-referenced, with many examples of popular culture given as examples in order to aide those having difficulties with the terminology. I, myself, didn't exactly agree with all of it, but I could see Baudrillards point on a lot of things. Judge for yourself, but you'll at least be pleased with the completeness. (However, JB's cultural references sometimes become outdated.)