Simulacra and Simulation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Simulacra and Simulation | |
 Cover of English translation |
|
| Author | Jean Baudrillard |
|---|---|
| Original title | Simulacres et Simulation |
| Translator | Sheila Glaser |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Subject(s) | Philosophy |
| Genre(s) | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Galilée (Editions) (French) & University of Michigan Press (English) |
| Publication date | 2 April 1985 |
| Published in English |
February, 1996 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 164 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 2718602104 (French) & ISBN 0472065211 (English) |
Simulacra and Simulation (Simulacres et Simulation in French) is a philosophical treatise by Jean Baudrillard that discusses the interaction between reality, symbols and society.
[edit] Overview
| “ | The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true.[1] | ” |
Simulacra and Simulation is most known for its discussion of images, signs, and how they relate to the present day. Baudrillard claims that modern society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that the human experience is of a simulation of reality rather than reality itself. The simulacra that Baudrillard refers to are signs of culture and media that create the perceived reality; Baudrillard believed the simulacra that society has become so reliant on that it has lost contact with the real world on which the similcra are based.
Simulacra and Simulation identifies three types of simulacra and identifies each with a historical period:
- First order, associated with the pre-modern period, where the image is clearly an artificial placemarker for the real item.
- Second order, associated with the industrial revolution, where distinctions between image and reality breaks down due to the proliferation of mass-produced copies. The items' ability to imitate reality threaten to replace the original version.
- Third order, associated with the postmodern age, where the simulacrum precedes the original and the distinction between reality and representation break down. There is only the simulacrum.[2]
Baudrillard theorizes the lack of distinctions between reality and simulacra originates in several phenomenon:
- Contemporary media including television, film, print and the Internet, which are responsible for blurring the line between goods that are needed and goods for which a need is created by commercial images.
- Exchange value, in which the value of goods is based on money rather than usefulness.
- Multinational capitalism, which separates produced goods from the plants, minerals and other original materials and the process used to create them.
- Urbanization, which separates humans from the natural world.
- Language and ideology, in which language is used to obscure rather than reveal reality when used by dominant, politically powerful groups.
A specific analogy that Baudrillard uses is a fable derived from On Exactitude in Science by Jorge Luis Borges. In it, a great Empire created a map that was so detailed it was as large as the Empire itself. The actual map grew and decayed as the Empire itself conquered or lost territory. When the Empire crumbled, all that was left was the map. In Baudrillard's rendition, it is the map that people live in, the simulation of reality, and it is reality that is crumbling away from disuse.
[edit] The Matrix
The Matrix makes many connections to Simulacra and Simulation. The first being, Simulacra and Simulation is the book that Neo keeps his pirated software in. In the film, the chapter 'On Nihilism' is in the middle, rather than the end of the book.
Morpheus also refers to the real world outside of the Matrix as the "desert of the real", which was directly referenced in Slavoj Zizek work, Welcome to the Desert of the Real. In the original script, Morpheus referenced Baudrillard's book specifically.[citation needed]
Keanu Reeves was asked by the directors to read the book, as well as Out of Control and Evolution Psychology, before being cast as Neo.[3]
In an interview, Baudrillard claimed that The Matrix misunderstands and distorts his work.[4]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Poster, Mark; Baudrillard, Jean (1988). Selected writings. Cambridge, UK: Polity. ISBN 0-7456-0586-9.
- ^ Hegarty, Paul (2004). Jean Baudrillard: live theory. London: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-6283-9.
- ^ Oreck J (director). (2001). The Matrix Revisited [DVD]. Warner Home Video.
- ^ Le Nouvel Observateur with Baudrillard. Le Nouvel Observateur (2004-10-15). Retrieved on 2007-12-07.
