The Walls We Break

The publication of Simulacra et Simulation in 1981 marked Jean Baudrillard's first important step toward theorizing the postmodern. Moving away from the Marxist/Freudian approaches that had concerned him earlier, Baudrillard developed in this book a theory of contemporary culture that relies on displacing economic notions of cultural production with notions of cultural expenditure. Baudrillard uses the concepts of the simulacrathe copy without an originaland simulation. These terms are crucial to an understanding of the postmodern, to the extent that they address the concept of mass reproduction and reproduceability that characterizes our electronic media culture. Baudrillard's book represents a unique and original effort to rethink cultural theory from the perspective of a new concept of cultural materialism, one that radically redefines postmodern formulations of the body. Sheila Glaser is an editor at Artforum magazine . The publication in France of Simulacra et Simulation in 1981 marked Jean Baudrillard's first important step toward theorizing the postmodern. Moving away from the Marxist/Freudian approaches that had concerned him earlier, Baudrillard developed in this book a theory of contemporary culture that relies on displacing economic notions of cultural production with notions of cultural expenditure. Baudrillard uses the concepts of the simulacrum-the copy without an original-and simulation, crucial to an understanding of the postmodern, to address the concept of mass reproduction and reproducibility that characterizes our electronic media culture. Translator Sheila Faria Glaser provides the first complete English edition of Baudrillard's rich speculations on the simulacrum: from the hologram to Apocalypse Now, clones to Crash, and Disneyland to Three Mile Island. Simulacra and Simulation represents a unique and original effort to rethink cultural theory from the perspective of a new concept of cultural materialism, one that radically redefines postmodern formulations of the body. Jean Baudrillard, one of France's leading intellectuals, began teaching in 1966 at Nanterre in Paris, where he spent most of his teaching career. -- Publisher description If once we were able to view the Borges fable in which the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up covering the territory exactly (the decline of the Empire witnesses the fraying of this map, little by little, and its fall into ruins, though some shreds are still discernible in the deserts - the metaphysical beauty of this ruined abstraction testifying to a pride equal to the Empire and rotting like a carcass, returning to the substance of the soil, a bit as the double ends by being confused with the real through aging) - as the most beautiful allegory of simulation, this fable has now come full circle for us, and possesses nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra. The Precession Of Simulacra -- History: A Retro Scenario -- Holocaust -- The China Syndrome -- Apocalypse Now -- The Beaubourg Effect: Implosion And Deterrence -- Hypermarket And Hypercommodity -- The Implosion Of Meaning In The Media -- Absolute Advertising, Ground-zero Advertising -- Clone Story -- Holograms -- Crash -- Simulacra And Science Fiction -- The Animals: Territory And Metamorphoses -- The Remainder -- The Spiraling Cadaver -- Value's Last Tango -- On Nihilism. By Jean Baudrillard ; Translated By Sheila Faria Glaser. Includes Bibliographical References. This book marked the author's first important step toward theorizing the postmodern condition. Moving away from Marxist and Freudian approaches, he develops here a theory of contemporary culture that relies on displacing economic notions of cultural production with notions of cultural expenditure, using the concepts of the simulacrum (the copy without an original) and simulation to address the concept of mass reproduction and reproduciability characteristic of electronic media culture