[iDC] Some thoughts on Jean Baudrillard

[Simon Biggs]

Thanks Jos. Neither US paper is on the streets here in Edinburgh. The UK
press has, so far, remained mute on his death...although that said, the
Guardian often waits a week or so to write an obit as they often commission
a pretty serious piece of writing that takes some time to compose. I would
be surprised if they do not eventually publish a substantial text.

Regards

Simon


On 13/3/07 05:23, "josephine at funksoup.com" <josephine at funksoup.com> wrote:

> "On the other hand I am yet to see a single English language
>  printed reference to the great French philosopher's death."
> 
> fyi --
> http://tinyurl.com/32yu7d
> NY Times: "Jean Baudrillard, 77, Critic and Theorist of Hyperreality, Dies"
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/3dltxm
> LA Times: "Jean Baudrillard, 77; kept a sharp eye on blurry reality"
> 
> cheers,
> ~Jos
> 
> 
>> Denial and display in the 1970's
>> 
>> John Inman died within 24 hours of Jean Baudrillard. Inman's death received
>> blanket coverage in the UK's popular media. Even the Guardian's
> obiturary
>> came out with an entire "Berliner" page. A quick check of the Australian
> Broadcasting Corporation's web portal confirmed the international import
> of
>> this death. On the other hand I am yet to see a single English language
> printed reference to the great French philosopher's death.
>> 
>> I imagine for much of the world's peoples the question would be "John
> who?",
>> whilst for the average TV viewer or newspaper reader in the English
> speaking
>> world the question would be "Jean who?".
>> 
>> John Inman and Jean Baudrillard might actually have more in common than
> just
>> the timing of their deaths. Baudrillard most famously proposed the
> concept
>> of the simulacra, when something is what it is because it resembles what it
>> should be, regardless of what it might actually be. In his most famous
> TV
>> role as Mr. Humphreys in UK TV's classic bad taste sitcom "Are you being
> served" John Inman enacted Baudrillard's concept of the simulacrum at
> about
>> the same time as Baudrillard would have been furiously thinking through his
>> initial thoughts on the subject.
>> 
>> Baudrillard mastered the art of the philisophical double entendre as he
> absorbed the phenomenologies of Merleau Ponty and Heidegger. The
> necessity
>> to square Kantian circles ensured that he would be able to seem to mean one
>> thing whilst actually meaning something entirely different.
>> 
>> Similarly the character of Mr Humphreys functioned to deny and defer the
> import of gendered identity, whether straight or gay. His effeminate but
> non-confronting persona functioned to reassure us that difference was
> not
>> really different, that we had nothing to fear. In this sense his work
> prefigures not only Baudrillard but also Derrida. The only difference
> between Inman's and Baudrillard's philosophy might therefore only be a
> matter of taste.
>> 
>> 100 years from today I am confident that Baudrilard will be remembered
> for
>> his important works, such as "Towards a Political Critique of the Sign" and
>> "Simulation and Simulacra". As to whether John Inman will be remembered
> is
>> an open question. Until his death I had forgotten his existence (with
> relief). To be reminded of Inman's existence at the same time as
> absorbing
>> the news that a thinker who had very deeply effected my own thinking had
> died was an unwelcome distraction. Unwelcome, but strangely fortuitous.
>> 
>> March 2007
>> 
>> Afternote: in the final stages of writing this I received Charlie Gere's
> piece on Baudrillard and found he too connected his death with that of
> Inman. The question now is whether to trash what I have written or
> "publish
>> and be damned"...well, you know the outcome.
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> Simon
>> 
>> 
>> Simon Biggs
>> simon at littlepig.org.uk
>> http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
>> AIM: simonbiggsuk
>> Research Professor in Art, Edinburgh College of Art
>> s.biggs at eca.ac.uk
>> http://www.eca.ac.uk/
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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Simon Biggs
simon at littlepig.org.uk
http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
AIM: simonbiggsuk
Research Professor in Art, Edinburgh College of Art
s.biggs at eca.ac.uk
http://www.eca.ac.uk/