Jean Baudrillard, requiescat in pace ...

[Tara Brady]

Wow. That's the last of the Holy trinity of Frenchies I had beaten
into me at university. Who will cause my neural  pathways to short
circuit now?

On 07/03/07, Dave Monroe <monropolitan at yahoo.com> wrote:
> French philosopher Jean Baudrillard dies
> The Associated Press
> Tuesday, March 6, 2007
>
>
> PARIS: Jean Baudrillard, a French philosopher and
> social theorist known for his provocative commentaries
> on consumerism, excess and what he said was the
> disappearance of reality, died Tuesday, his publishing
> house said. He was 77.
>
> Baudrillard died at his home in Paris after a long
> illness, said Michel Delorme, of the Galilee
> publishing house.
>
> The two men had worked together since 1977, when
> "Oublier Foucault" (Forget Foucault) was published,
> one of about 30 books by Baudrillard, Delorme said by
> telephone.
>
> Among his last published books was "Cool Memories V,"
> in 2005.
>
> Baudrillard, a sociologist by training, is perhaps
> best known for his concepts of "hyperreality" and
> "simulation."
>
> Baudrillard advocated the idea that spectacle is
> crucial in creating our view of events — what he
> termed "hyperreality." Things do not happen if they
> are not seen to happen.
>
> He gained fame, and notoriety, in the English-speaking
> world for his 1991 book "The Gulf War Did Not Take
> Place." In the first Gulf War, he claimed, nothing was
> as it appeared.
>
> The public's — and even the military's — view of the
> conflict came largely through television images;
> Saddam Hussein was not defeated; the U.S.-led
> coalition scarcely battled the Iraqi military and did
> not really win, since little was changed politically
> in Iraq after all the carnage. All the sound and fury
> signified little, he argued.
>
> The Sept. 11 attacks, in contrast, were the hyper-real
> event par excellence — a fusion of history, symbolism
> and dark fantasy, "the mother of all events."
>
> His views on the attacks sparked controversy. While
> terrorists had committed the atrocity, he wrote, "It
> is we who have wanted it. . . . Terrorism is immoral,
> and it responds to a globalization that is itself
> immoral."
>
> Although many Americans were puzzled by his views,
> Baudrillard was a tireless enthusiast for the United
> States — though he once called it "the only remaining
> primitive society."
>
> "Santa Barbara is a paradise; Disneyland is a
> paradise; the U.S. is a paradise," he wrote. "Paradise
> is just paradise. Mournful, monotonous, and
> superficial though it may be, it is paradise. There is
> no other."
>
> French Education Minister Gilles de Robien said "We
> lose a great creator."
>
> "Jean Baudrillard was one of the great figures of
> French sociological thought."
>
> Born west of Paris in Reims on June 20, 1929,
> Baudrillard, the son of civil servants, began a long
> teaching career instructing high school students in
> German. After receiving a doctorate in sociology, he
> taught at the University of Paris in Nanterre.
>
> http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/06/europe/EU-GEN-France-Obit-Baudrillard.php
>
>
>
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