Télémorphose précédé de L'élevage de poussière

by Jean Baudrillard

The art of living today has shifted to a continuous state of the experimental. In one of his last texts, Telemorphosis, renowned thinker and anti-philosopher Jean Baudrillard takes on the task of thinking and reflecting on the coming digital media architectures of the social. While “the social” may have never existed, according to Baudrillard, his analysis at the beginning of the twenty-first century of the coming social media–networked cultures cannot be ignored. One need not look far in order to find oneself snared within some sort of screenification of a techno-social community. “What the most radical critical critique, the most subversive delirious imagination, what no Situationist drift could have done . . . television has done.” Collective reality has entered a realm of telemorphosis.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory

2001 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Jean Baudrillard was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet, with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as his formulation of concepts such as hyperreality. Baudrillard wrote about diverse subjects, including consumerism, critique of economy, social history, aesthetics, Western foreign policy, and popular culture. Among his most well-known works are Seduction (1978), Simulacra and Simulation (1981), America (1986), and The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991). His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and specifically post-structuralism. Nevertheless, Baudrillard had also opposed post-structuralism, and had distanced himself from postmodernism.

Reviews

[blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

very funky baby !!!

[graceofgod · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Hence the other question, taking the place as a final interrogation: WHO WAS LAUGHING IN THE LOFT? Within this material world without a trace of humor, what sort of monster could laugh back-stage? What sort of sarcastic divinity could laugh about all of it from his innermost depths? The human all too human must have turned over in his grave. But as we know very well, human convulsions are a distraction for the gods, who merely laugh at them."

[Taylor Dorrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential, yet readable, text in our age of surveillance capitalism and social media. Although this can be read as an extension of his work on simulation and simulacra, it's nonetheless a short and original flowing reflection on the blending of reality with images of reality and more specifically the failure of both banality and overt sexualization to garner any kind of passion for the Real. There's only a cycle of images of self interacting with images of other selves. Like the blurring of 'reality' and images, the notion of collectivity and individuality are blurred in this process, as there is no longer a Real audience or characters, only images of images of images all connected to the umbilical chord of the screen. Very quick read (finished it in one morning read), therefore a great introduction into the world of theory as Baudrillard tends to keep philosophy references and jargon minimal, but also loaded with points to reflect on (I made many highlights that I'll be going back to reread). Good read.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoy the short, nicely designed novella format that resembles that of the tiny novels you might find a Japanese person reading on the train. I think the design of a book is almost as important as its content. Telemorphosis is a mini-collection of two essays and is my first exposure to Baudrillard. I mirror his shock at the grotesqueness of modernity. I see a parallel between the Loft Story and Tiktok, where the human condition is banalized and where we so strongly feel the urge to know something we would not be satisfied even if we cut it open. We subject ourselves to something even greater than the Panopticon by opening ourselves up to the world for dissection and inspection. Baudrillard also talks about seduction and sex. Pornography has led to the banalization of sex and the elimination of the seduction leading up to it. We are left in a world where nothing is special. It really is a perfect crime in which the distinction between murderer and victim disappears. It is sad that Baudrillard foresaw all this but nobody listened.

[Gulliver's Bad Trip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kind of a sequel to The Perfect Crime but with its discourse surrounding reality shows. Disney's Mickey Mouse, lab rats and mouses, Trump and the celebrity politicians, surveillance society, reality shows with CGI realism, CGI blockbusters with a reality show appeal and absurdist banality after the holocaust of the Real. That's about it. This sums it all up.

[Roan24 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish he would have watched more American television, or lived long enough to see squid game and the real life version. I especially would've liked to see his analysis on Sam Hyde's Fish Tank series, the combination of banal voyeurism and the normalization of humiliation as entertainment is predicted in this book.

[Castles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, brilliant, and prophetic. Almost every second sentence here is quotable, and Baudrillard's voice is sorely missed in light of the current incarnation of social media. I wonder how he'd read into it.

[Ali Jones Alkazemi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Denne boken er en god liten pekepinn på Baudrillards kritikk av vår livløse og virtuelle hverdag.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Where is the original event in all of this?There isn't one. All that remains is this mysterious contagion, this viral chain that functions from one end to the other, and to which we are all accomplices even in our analysés.”

“it’s better to hold on to the presumption of nullity - in the same way one says the presumption of innocence. And this, this is radical democracy. The democratic principle was of the order of merit, and equivalence (albeit relative) between merit and recognition.”

“On one hand, it is the end of democracy, by the extinction of any qualification of merit whatsoever, but on the other hand, it is the result of an even more radical democracy on the basis of the beatification of the man without qualities. It is a great step towards democratic nihilism.
In this disequilibrium between merit and public recognition, there is a kind of breakdown of the social contract which leads to another type of injustice and anomaly: while we could accuse traditional democracy of not rewarding their citizens with the merit they deserved, here one would be better off accusing it of indifferently overvaluing everyone”

“Television created a global event (or better, a non-event), in which everyone became trapped. "A total social fact" as Marcel Mauss says - if in other societies this situation indicated the converging power of all the elements of the social, in our society it indicates the elevation of an entire society to the parody stage of an integral farce, of an image feedback relentless with its own reality.”

“And there is, within this entire story of the Loft, a collective work of mourning. But a mourning which is part of the solidarity between the criminals themselves that we all are - the murderers of this crime perpetrated against real life, and the wallowing confession made to the screen, which in some ways becomes our literal confessional (the confessional is one of the key sites of Loft Story). Here we see our true mental corruption - in the consumption of this deception and mourning which becomes a contradictory source of pleasure…
…Hence the other question, taking the place as a final interrogation: WHO WAS LAUGHING IN THE LOFT? Within this material world without a trace of humor, what sort of monster could laugh back-stage? What sort of sarcastic divinity could laugh about all of it from his innermost depths? The human all too human must have turned over in his grave. But as we know very well, human convulsions are a distraction for the gods, who merely laugh at them.”

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book probably deserves either 2 stars or 4 stars but I'm not sure which yet. I have to think about it and reread parts of it.