Date: Tue, 23 Jul 96 13:54 EDT
From: David_I_PADDY-AT-umail.umd.edu (dp89)
Subject: objet darts


I've been enjoying the recent discussions about the real, the fractal order, et
al.  To keep this going i'd like to throw my two bent sense in.

In the current discussion, the classic problem about reading Baudrillard
seems to be arising once more.  When Baudrillard speaks of simulation is he
being celebratory, descriptive, or condemnatory? (Or is it neither
neither/nor?)   I don't know if simulation is a "challenge to the real" or
not.  Simulation is the more real than real, the ecstatic state of the real,
wherein the real disappears.  But Baudrillard seems more interested in
engaging the real in a challenge (whatever this might entail).  How is the
real different or similar to the objects he speaks of. In works
like Fatal Strategies and the Transparencies of Evil Baudrillard talks about
the revenge of objects (and the revenge of Evil) in a way that would subvert
the preconception which has B. saying objects don't exist.  So, once again,
how do we read Baudrillard?  For all this use of his work in the celebration of
this mythic space called cyberspace and the disappearance of the body,
should we regard B. as someone who is elated or melancholic about such
conditions?

dp