Reviews

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  By Sam Swicord - August 11, 2013 9:02 am Log in to Reply
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  By Riley Reasor - March 2, 2021 5:58 pm Log in to Reply

  Baudrillard’s concepts of Hyperreality, Sign Value and Simulation are excellent tools to analyze the cultural climate of contemporary America. His reckless spitballing and theorizing is what makes this text good and also why it suffers. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of Santa Barbara, LA area and California deserts where I spent much of my life. Baudrillard turned the lens from the Marxist fixation on production towards analyzing consumption… A few of his observations concerning race and gender in this novel are a bit unnuanced and offensive but occasionally insightful. I got more out of the first half of the book than the end “utopia realized”. He examines America with the lens of the European anthropologist in a sci fi film but the postmodern sarcasm can also become exhausting. While this book has some flaws it might be an accessible window into concepts like Hyperreality, sign value, and Simulacra which offer insight into many current events. I found myself busting up laughing a good deal reading this as well as scratching my head at some of his conclusions… Overall a fun read. 3.5 stars.