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jean baudrillard 1929-2007 Jean Baudrillard died today. Mark Poster once wrote this criticism of Baudrillard's early work: "He fails to define key terms, such as the code; his writing style is hyperbolic and declarative, often lacking sustained, systematic analysis when it is appropriate; he totalizes his insights, refusing to qualify or delimit his claims. He writes about particular experiences, television images, as if nothing else in society mattered, extrapolating a bleak view of the world from that limited base. He ignores contradictory evidence such as the many benefits afforded by the new media." To which I would respond: yeah, but that's exactly what I liked about him... Now taking bets on how many US obits will mention the high-profile but ultimately non-profound Baudrillard references in The Matrix. Labels: obituaries

Wednesday, March 07, 2007 5:07 PM   Comments: New York Times lead paragraph: "The French critic and provocateur Jean Baudrillard, whose theories about consumer culture and the manufactured nature of reality were intensely discussed both in rarefied philosophical circles and in blockbuster movies like “The Matrix,” died yesterday in Paris." Sigh. # posted by  jpb : 10:09 AM   Post a Comment