jean baudrillard 1929-2007
Jean Baudrillard died today.
Mark Poster once wrote this criticism of Baudrillard's early work: "He fails to define key terms, such as the code; his writing style is hyperbolic and declarative, often lacking sustained, systematic analysis when it is appropriate; he totalizes his insights, refusing to qualify or delimit his claims. He writes about particular experiences, television images, as if nothing else in society mattered, extrapolating a bleak view of the world from that limited base. He ignores contradictory evidence such as the many benefits afforded by the new media." To which I would respond: yeah, but that's exactly what I liked about him...
Now taking bets on how many US obits will mention the high-profile but ultimately non-profound Baudrillard references in The Matrix.