Baudrillard

[Peter Kosenko]

Baudrillard has been taken apart quite a bit as
one of the most egregious examples "postmodern"
academic puffery and obscurantism and French
academic celebrity culture -- strangely more
respected here probably than there these days, but
I don't know (I no longer prowl academic halls). 
When I was attending the West Coast Headquarters
of the deconstructionist mafia, Mark Poster
published a book "The Mode of Information," based
(probably) on the idea that the critique of
"productionism" in "The Mirror of Production"
indicated that there was some fundamental shift to
an "information economy" (as if "information"
never existed in human experience before, although
it may have been called something else -- a
painting is "information," if you want to CALL it
that, and so are double-entry ledger books) that
somehow was a quantum leap into some other kind of
society.  I remember not being very convinced and
reading Theodore Roszac's (?) "The Cult of
Information" to greater satisfaction later.

Last book I read related to this matter, and which
I found cogent, was Michael Perelman's "Class
Warfare in the Information Age," little known, it
seems.  I see that he has contributed to the list,
so I would like to thank him for the book.  I
would recommend it.

The comment "Oubliez Baudrillard!" was a pun on
the title of Baudrillard's book "Oubliez
Foucault!" -- a diatribe and hatchet job on Michel
Foucault written when Baudrillard was trying to
cement his "reputation" in the "everything is
media"/"there is no reality" involution of French
intellectual culture (at least such as I was being
exposed to).

This is not even a discussion of the issues (there
IS a critique on can do of "productionism" as
ideology -- after all Ayn Rand is full of that
crap -- but I don't think it is through
Baudrillard), just an explanation of the
background of the pun on Baudrillard's book. 
These days I have an entirely different job and am
necessarily involved in other things.  The
"oracular" style of French theory and its
influence in the field of literature and art was
not one that I could quite take to.  Too much
fucking jargonizing for its own sake.

Peter Kosenko

P.S. Obviously most of you have more time than I
have, so I will try to be back when I actually
have something more concrete to say about some
issue.  Mostly signed on to listen in, since there
are interesting things on the list. 

Here's a link to an old essay:
http://www.netwood.net/~kosenko/jackson.html

John Halle wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > Very funny, and I agree wholeheartedly.
> >
> > Oubliez Baudrillard!
> >
> > Peter Kosenko
> >
> > >Michael Pollak wrote:
> > >
> > >>To be fair to Baudrilliard
> > >
> > >Why?
> > >
> > >Doug
> > >
> >
> 
> Maybe I'm obtuse here, but I'm having difficulty following the logic of
> this exchange.  Doug posts a typically annoyingly vacuous remark of B.
> which is subsequentally shown to be vacuous, though "to be fair" not quite
> as stupid as one might have initially thought. But then it is claimed that
> there is no reason to forgive B's idiocy in any case-the implication being
> that we all knew he was an empty suit to beging with.
> 
> What, then, was the point in posting the first remark? To keep us on our
> toes?
> 
> Am I suffering from irony deficiency syndrome?
> 
> I do admit to getting a good chuckle at french pomos receiving a good in
> the rear-fairly or unfairly.
> 
> John

-- 
=============================================================
Peter Kosenko
Email: mailto:kosenko at netwood.net
URL: http://www.netwood.net/~kosenko
Netwood Design Center URL: http://ndc.netwood.net/
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"Man is a rational animal.  He can think up a
reason for anything he wants to
believe."--Benjamin Franklin