Jean Baudrillard - R.I.P.

[Gerardo A]

"The only things real are those that can have an equivalent reproduction."

Died yesterday, RIP sir.

- - - -

There are bunch of good links in Spanish ; this is the Wikipedia English entry.

[crawjo]

He died yesterday in Paris. Or, as perhaps he would like us to ask, did he really?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/bo...in&oref=slogin

[aminadab]

Yes, I was a big fan when I was an undergrad, and this is quite sad. I haven't read the article but I really hope it's better than the one they did for Derrida, which was despicable.

[crawjo]

Dying is nothing. You have to know how to disappear. Dying comes down to a biological chance and that is of no consequence. Disappearing is of a far higher order of necessity. You must not leave it to biology to decide when you will disappear. To disappear is to pass into an enigmatic state which is neither life nor death. Some animals know how to do this, as do savages. who withdraw, while still alive, from the sight of their own people.

--Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories

[crawjo]

New York:

"The number of people here who think alone, sing alone, and eat and talk alone in the streets is mind-boggling. And yet they don't add up. Quite the reverse. They subtract from each other and their resemblance to one another is uncertain.

"Yet there is a certain solitude like no other - that of the man preparing his meal in public on a wall, or on the hood of his car, or along a fence, alone. You see that all the time here. It is the saddest sight in the world. Sadder than destitution, sadder than the beggar is the man who eats alone in public. Nothing more contradicts the laws of man or beast, for animals always do each other the honour of sharing or disputing each other's food. He who eats alone is dead (but not he who drinks alone. Why is this?)

-Jean Baudrillard, America

[Root Doctor]

It was a simulacrum.

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by aminadab

Yes, I was a big fan when I was an undergrad, and this is quite sad. I haven't read the article but I really hope it's better than the one they did for Derrida, which was despicable.

The only thing I understood in the article was this quote:

“If the texts seem incomprehensible, it is for the excellent reason that they mean precisely nothing,” Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont wrote in their 1998 book “Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science.”

[aminadab]

Originally Posted by rollhead

The only thing I understood in the article was this quote:

“If the texts seem incomprehensible, it is for the excellent reason that they mean precisely nothing,” Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont wrote in their 1998 book “Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science.”

That's actually the one part I didn't understand. I can't seem to get a grip on Sokal's irony. I guess he's the most pomo of all.

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by aminadab

That's actually the one part I didn't understand. I can't seem to get a grip on Sokal's irony. I guess he's the most pomo of all.

Hmmmmmmm... after some reflection, you are right. I don't get it either!