Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 09:04:29 -0800
Subject:  end of critique (repost)


sorry to repost this. i forgot to include what it was a response to. 
T. Riley writes:
>I would like to see, if enougjh agrree to it, a list/forum where we
can talk
>about using Baudrillard in cultural studies, instead of trying to
fix his
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>position in the sapce of critical theory....

Perhaps you could start by saying more about just *what* this beast
is?

And who is "trying to fix his position in the space of critical
theory"?  Arguably not B. himself: 

"Today the extremes finally come face to face, once the conservative
obstacle of critical thought has been removed"  (_Forget Foucault_,
52-3)

Salud,
Tristan

exactly...  for baudrillard, the work of the negative is over (a kind
of hyper-hegelianism has won out).  we are beyond critique, or at the
place of its implosion.  every beginning is now from this extreme
point--not at all a good place to be, but that's where the
technologies of simulation, and all their positivistic nihilism, have
brought us.  where is it that baudrillard says "better to die going to
extremes than starting out from them"? (transparency of evil?).  today
everything begins from its extremity (its end, model, program, screen,
hologram).  baudrillard has been trying to struggle with this problem
(the end of things, the implosion of linear time, the
hyper-finalities of excresent capital) for awhile now.  the question
for me is where baudrillard's challenge to all this is directed.  my
guess is to certain kind of "imaginary" (the imaginary of the
"screen" and 4th order simulation, not Lacan or Althusser's imaginary
[the mirror, ideology]).  what today challenges this imaginary,
materialized/virtualized today in computers, prosthetics, ergonomics,
cyborgs, bubble boys, etc.?  seduction, boredom, idleness,
distraction....?   these are some of the positive-cultural (as
opposed to critical-theoretical) questions we can ask about
baudrillard today.  bbogard   


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