Selected Writings

by Jean Baudrillard

This is an expanded edition of the first comprehensive overview of the work of Jean Baudrillard, one of the most fascinating thinkers on the French intellectual scene. To the original selection of his writings from 1968 to 1985, this new edition adds examples of Baudrillard's work since that time. Reviews of the First Edition "This is a good book, and the author of its selected writings, Jean Baudrillard, deserves only a share of the compliment. It is difficult to introduce a difficult author, and Mark Poster has done a brilliant job. He has selected wisely from Baudrillard's writings. . . . More important, Poster has written what may be, pound for pound, the best introduction to a social theorist I have read. . . . Poster has somehow said everything the uninitiated needs to know before deciding to read Baudrillard."— Contemporary Sociology "Following the lead of thinkers such as Foucault, Derrida, and Deleuze, Baudrillard engages in a task of pointing away from any traditional sociological themes. His writings demand that one turn away from convenient or customary interpretations of society and, in the process, one is forced to use his or her imagination in new ways."— Choice "Poster's Introduction presents what is probably as clear and intelligent an exposition of Baudrillard's ideas as you'll find anywhere."— Philosophy and Literature

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory, Politics, Cultural Studies, France, Sociology

294 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 1988

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

[Hrafnkell Úlfur · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Í gleðskapnum miðjum hvíslar maður í eyrað hennar: “Hvað ertu að fara að gera eftir orgíuna?””
- Jean Baudrillard

Afbragðssafn skrifa Baudrillards! Legg einnig til að öll Atviksritin verði endurútgefin í einu heildarsafni. Meira var það ekki.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm getting too old for this shit

[v · Rating 3 out of 5]

This influential 1980s collection could be subtitled "Simulated Writings."
Preceding any "real" Baudrillard is this collection's model of Baudrillard as a neatly packaged critical theorist (with NEW special feature: disappointing mid-career turn!) marketed towards export-hungry, Anglo-American professors and their students hunting for post-collegiate brilliance. All of Baudrillard's works and this selection are indistinguishable in this realm. Also indistinguishable are the various values of this book, sign-, use-, exchange-, or otherwise. Sure, you can gain some fluency in his work and its problems by consuming these selections, and in that respect it is useful. But the alibi of usefulness is the first thing Baudrillard is suspicious of in these very pages.
Which is all, from a Baudrillardian perspective, the point. So whether this book is or isn't a devious inside joke, I still find it funny. But I prefer Baudrillard's own version of his selected writings, The Ecstasy of Communication, especially since Mark Poster's introduction to this collection is simply a condensed version of Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond and only rehearses all the same old gripes from that camp.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eesh. This is definitely not something you can plow through expecting full understanding when you finish. Rather, if you're like me, you raid the nearest fridge for a pint of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia and drown your perplexities in cold, creamy indulgence. Then when the spoon comes in contact with the bare cardboard bottom, you have no other choice but to face reality... OR IS IT?! Anyways, it took me a couple more readings to get what Baudrillard was getting at. He's basically criticizing the modern individual in how they perceive the world. Realities no longer exist, as they are swiftly being replaced by models, or simulations, of the real. However, it should be noted that simulation is not a representation of an object. Simulation is the real without the real. Let me phrase it better. When you simulate something, you are generating something--an imaginary-- without an original. You lose touch with the natural and instead create something that is real to you--a second nature. This is what Baudrillard is warning us from. We have completely become so dependent on creations that we are no longer anchored to reality. There is no longer a barrier separating truth from falsehood. Layers of this keep piling on each other until we can't even comprehend truth from falsehood because their very definitions are blurred.

He keeps going on about this until the individual enters the hyperreal, where knowing if something is reality or fantasy doesn't even matter anymore because we're so far removed from the real.

That's basically the bare gist of it. I need more Cherry Garcia.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting set of readings ranging across Baudrillard's life, showing the development of his thought and style. Ultimately frustrating: the essays start off as super-dense Marxist theory, then slowly develop into something that seems to have fascinating potential (terrorism as hyperreal violence, pornography as hyperreal sex), and then shift into something so abstruse and nearly poetic that it becomes nearly impossible to get anything from it once again. Fascinating and elusive.

[Gordon Goodwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess a good introduction to Baudrillard, reading the introduction is definately important to orienting yourself to the timeline of his detachment from Marxist analysis. The procession of the sign is a really interesting idea, as is his analysis of Watergate, though his system can be a bit too depressing for me sometimes. Really fascinating ideas, but its sometimes clear that he doesn't know enough about what he is actually critiquing for it to stick.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dry, scientific credibility stuff in the front…party in the back. This collection moves from his practical, more economically relevant work to the poetic masterpieces. Each chapter transitions in a functional way. It is difficult for anyone with the requisite background to fully discount Baudrillard when you read him in this order. You get to know his brilliance from whichever accessible perspective your own knowledge starts, if you indeed keep reading.

“a haunting memory already foreshadowed everywhere, manifesting at one and the same time the satisfaction of having got rid of it (nobody wants it any more, everybody unloads it on others) and grieving its loss. Melancholy for societies without power: this has already given rise to fascism, that overdose of a powerful referential in a society which cannot terminate its mourning. But we are still in the same boat: none of our societies know how to manage their mourning for the real, for power, for the social itself”

[Ci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baudrillard's name was mentioned in an on-line cultural critique on hyper-consumerism and obsessions of media. This book is published by Stanford University Press with an excellent preface by Mark Poster, a professor of history, film and who is known for bringing in French Critical Theories to US.

The philosophic theories and terminologies in this book are beyond my range and depth, even though the topics are relevant to daily lives. Baudrillard's concerns are consumer culture, semiological studies of consumer objects in the contemporary lives, and the high-tech media virtual reality ("Simulacra and Simulations"). There are also essays on Gulf War and other political issues.

[Gertrude & Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those unfamiliar with the works of Jean Baudrillard, this book is the ideal starting point. This collection provides an excellent selection of Baudrillard's works. It is an indispensible guide for anyone seeking to better understand modern society today. Mark Poster provides an illuminating introduction to one of the most influential social and cultural theorists of the last 30 years. Strongly recommended.

[Jake Maguire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of technical language and many complex ideas but it was definitely a book that got me thinking. I know taking a course would be the best way to experience his thought, but I found my teacher Dr. Feenberg to be harder to understand than the book itself.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read selectively from this.

[William West]

His early writing has interesting ideas, but is incredibly dryly written. His later work is, of course, colorfully written, but I don't find it theoretically or politically helpful or relevant.

[Desy Budi Utami · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really helpful to understand Jean Baudrillard's work. The languags was easy for those whose not using English as their national language.

[Zach Irvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good smattering of Baudrillard's work. The essays Mark Poster chose showcases the evolution of Baudrillard's thoughts well.

[Robert Geoghegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book helped inform my understanding of what I would consider cultural norms. Well written and insightful.

[Alex]

Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings by Jean Baudrillard (2001)