Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Baudrillard debate continues

Writing in England's Prospect Magazine, Simon Blackburn, a good popularizer of difficult philosophical ideas, has come to the defense of Jean Baudrillard, whose legacy has been heavily debated since his death last month, as discussed in a number of posts on Brainiac.

His short piece urges us to take Baudrillard's more outlandish statements -- like "le gulf war n'existe pas," referring ot the Bush I version -- with a grain of salt, since he was a provocateur by trade. Blackburn also critiques one of Baudrillard's central theses, while giving it a certain credit:

Perhaps nature has varnished and spun the pictures we receive. They too are commodities, bought in to provide sustenance. Perhaps, at the limit, we live in a virtual reality, unable to comprehend our real position, sentenced to a woeful life of dreams, myth, fiction and illusion. Baudrillard, the inspiration for the Matrix films, tried to distance himself from the trite opposition of one moment seeing through the glass darkly and then coming face to face with reality, yet he enjoyed playing with its ingredients. I do not think this was wise, since generalised scepticism implies that there is nothing especially wrong about America or late capitalism or consumer society -- and would any self-respecting culture critic want to draw that conclusion?

Nevertheless, says Blackburn, Baudrillard's radical doubt (recall Descartes) had its lasting value:

French postmodernism may be passing, but it had a point. Even if engagement with the world is the cure, the respite it gives may be short-lived. No sooner has the real moment gone than the work of memory begins, once more selecting, massaging, suppressing and spinning.

We do well to keep our eye on the spin.

Posted by Evan Hughes at 02:48 PM

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