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March 7, 2007
Jean Baudrillard, RIP
Just found out via Karina on Twitter that French philosopher Jena Baudrillard died yesterday at the age of 77. The New York Times has a brief, if not terribly flattering, obituary that emphasizes Baudrillard's concept of simulation, focusing as much on the Wachowski brothers' appropriation of his ideas in the Matrix trilogy as anything else. There's also a surprisingly snarky reference to Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont's description of much postmodern thought as "fashionable nonsense." Baudrillard's concepts of simulation and simulacra and his analysis of the unreality of Gulf War I footage have been helpful to me for much of my academic career, and I will miss his ongoing contributions to media studies and philosophical discourse in general.
Posted by chuck at March 7, 2007 3:09 PM
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Comments
The Guardian has a good obit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2028464,00.html
Actually chooses to understand the man's ideas instead of just making fun of them.
Posted by: tom at March 8, 2007 1:21 PM
Thanks, Tom. The Times has a bad habit of treating French theorists this way.
Posted by: Chuck at March 8, 2007 11:41 PM