2.21.2008

Jean Baudrillard: Man, what a prick!

I've heard the name "Jean Baudrillard" floating around since I started at art college, but had never actually read him until last week.

He reminds me of when I was in high school, and those annoying fucking kids on the debate team would rattle off these kinds of truisms. Example: during the months anticipating America's invasion of Iraq in 2003, they would blab on with, "War is never necessary, and it's time for us to all agree never to fight wars again." When implicitly asked by another student to shut the fuck up, (statements such as, "we're talking about how a war is imminent at the moment, so your arguments don't really apply here") they retorted, "Don't just accept the status quo!" at which point the class collectively rolls its eyes. They're all talking about how this kid is wrong, but the problem is that the little runt sees the collective frustration as some kind of validation of his juvenile beliefs. The Debate Team twirp, like Baudrillard, enjoys saying things like this since he enjoys how frustrated people become in their responses. This easily explains Baudrillard's vexing use of hyperbole and absolutes- by making outlandish and somewhat impenetrable - although seriously useless - arguments, such as, "The Gulf War did not take place," or "History has ended," he provokes a large response in the literary and artistic community, which he revels in quite childishly. This revelry, essentially masturbation, is the sole purpose of his work, and now that he is dead, his work no longer exists. Haha!

(this is the last paragraph of an essay which I didn't feel like publishing in its entirety.)

2 comments:

shao said...

and now that he is dead, his work no longer exists. Haha!

this.

best post ever

Anonymous said...

I think his work is most relevant in a time a little earlier than the one we're in now. In 2008, we've generally already had the postmodern realization...so to speak...that he's referring to..."art is dead" etc etc. I think it leaves us at a point where these arguments become tiresome, leaving us thinking "okay, well what now? what else?"