‘America’ by Jean Baudrillard

During the aurora of the new sequence, the States has etern add uplyy interest foreigners with its magnificence and grandeur as if tempt then to come and explore its everlasting possibilities. Even philosophers of arts and sciences as substanti altogethery as salutary kn let personalities in the field of accommodates calculate their the Statesn travel as exciting and memorable. They ar all(prenominal) enthralled by the agriculturals grand wide plainspoken spaces, masss culture and fires in technology.One of Frances leading philosophers jean Baudrillard, well kn let for his post ultramodern fontism and mysterious philosophical views on historical and nowadays until nowts was as well as captivated by the Statess considerable grammatical constituents of cultures and advancement. Baudrillard became to a greater extent(prenominal) support to launch his own travel when he learned of cut philosopher Tocquevilles the Statesn journey. And so in the mid-eighties, Baudrillard do his own travelogue and put down his findings in his bind, the States (1988).This sustain was earlier written in cut and presented Baudrillards nonifications of the Statesn culture, advancement in nicety as well as the ailment of the States itself. According to him, what erect be read from this book is merely his observation on his visit and should non be put onn seriously neverthe little not necessarily for granted. Baudrillard was known for his humourous and oppose views which he clearly shown from his early(a) writings.His go for of metaphor and linguistic style may not be so familiar to eitherbody nevertheless reading his lines altogether and taste his motives give bring you to conclusion that he was corporeally an observer and a dilettante with extra-ordinary perception on events (Baudrillard, 1989) Most adjourn of the book talk about both(prenominal) of the responsibilitys he visited as well as his disc everyplacey of the commonwealt h, what is within them and how they live in their societies. One can notice his amazement with the States which he wrote in his just about charmed completely satirical manner.Part of the book which described best what the States is all about was starring(p) America. On this section, he verbalize that being in America was give care being in the land of Utopia where everybody seems to be living in their blissful society, consummate(a) with amenities, desolatedom and the proceedss exploitation the up-to-the-minute technology. The book America overly discusses mevery significant observations and his analytic thinking which he put in many an other(a)(prenominal) sections much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) as Vanishing Point, New York, Utopia Achieved, The End of US Power and Desert For Ever and stellar(a) America.prima(p) America described the highest point where America already has its lead in innovations, capacious urbanization and swell industrialization among former(a) industrialized states. Although Europe was already enhance in terms of industrialization during the 1980s , America has al directions been the leader in the aspect of economic advantage. This probably encouraged Baudrillard to travel to America and see late for himself the experimental condition of a grand farming that is continually moving and upgrading itself to be more secured and nonsymbiotic.Reading prima(p) America, you could feel Baudrillards fear for Americas vast stain and its advancement in many angles. Its modern creations spread among great cities and lands where everybody lives in smart as a whip days. His description of this nation was of a favored country where Disneyland is a place multitude from all over the human race destiny to visit. Furthermore, he said that you could find in this nation the perfect combination of delight and fantasy. Everybody do their job with their modern machines and the procedure of their technology for entertain ment is endless.As he was quoted on following starring(p) America. The lyrical genius of pure circulation.. As against the melancholy of European analyses The exhilaration of obscenity, the obscenity of obviousness, the obviousness of advocator, the fountain of manikinSideration. Star-blasted, horizontally by the car, altitudinally by the plane, electronically by television, geo logically by deserts, stereolithically by the megalopoloi, transpolitically by the force out game, the power museum that American has cash in wizards chips for the wholly populace (Baudrillard, 1989, p. 27).However, throughout his American travel, Baudrillard do the flick that he was conscious of his status as a European because of the comparison on what he saw. In between the lines, he described Europe as an unavoidably old, ethnic, contrived, confined and accustomed with lesser modernisation wherein he view America as more than the domain, formed into a vast realization of cultures and colo rful depiction of reverberation from opposite cultures. Such as on the following excerpts Why should I go and decentralize myself in France, in the ethnic and the local, which argon merely the shreds and vestiges of centrality?I emergency to excentre myself, to become eccentric, but I indispensability to do so in a place that is the centre of the humans. And, in this sense, the latest fast-food outlet, the virtually banal suburb, the blandest of behemoth American cars or the almost insignificant car in any casen-strip majorette is more at the centre of the world than any of the cultural manifestations of old Europe (Baudrillard, 1989) only Baudrillard similarly decl ard some abject views about America. Here, he said that other Europeans see the grand nation as a land of barbarism. That although it was a great nation full of smell and break with opportunities, it has as well as its own disease and flaws.In Astral America, he does not see America as all glory although i t is hostile Europe that had its dark historical days on wars. He sees America as a vast desert where culture, disposal and gender be in a state of commotion. There is in any case hunger, infixed conflict, discrimination and prejudice. He wrote that America invariably hold backs me a feeling of ascetism. Culture, politics and sexual activity too are seen exclusively in terms of the desert, which here assumes the status of a primal sceneEven the body, by an ensuing effect of undernourishment, dramatizes on a transparent form, lightness near to complete disappearance.Everything around me suffers this same desertification (Baudrillard, 1989). Even at the rural sides of America, the grandest of homes and the beauty of the landscapes cannot hide the over simplicity that is embracing the monotonous life of the American populate. Thus the Utopian dreaming cannot be in full truth itself but only a flying solace from the harshness of the Western life. America after all is not free of tasks but unlike other nations it is undeniably angiotensin converting enzyme big nation that faces its enigma head on. As Baudrillard was quoted on the following On the aromatic hillsides of Santa Barbara, the villas are all like funeral homes.Between the gardenias and the eucalyptus tress, among the profusion of place genuses and the monotony of the human species, lies the tragedy of a utopia dream made candorThis is Americas problem and, through America, it has become the whole worlds problem (Baudrillard, 1989), p. 30) moreover even as Baudrillards depiction of life to the harsh surround of the Americans, he said they can take setbacks squarely. That even in war one can observe their presence of capitulum is eternally intact. Also he neer failed to observe Americas regulation and their influence on their people.Nevertheless, he also took notice of American politics as well as he sees political power in America as a uniting factor which binds people in one grea t nation. Although he never mentioned of France leaders in America as well as its absence on the section on Astral America, his discussion with Americas leaders did signify that there is also a difference between his countrys rulers as well as Americas political leaders. His mentioned of Americas leaders as they influence the whole America in their fight for exemption and justice were properly justified.In Astral America, he wrote some lines on the countrys leaders influence on their people. As he wrote that The make a face of immunity, the smile of advertising This country is good. I am good. We are the best. It is also Reagans smile the culmination of the self-satisfaction of the intact American nation which is on the way to becoming the sole principle of government (Baudrillard, 1989). In terms of advancement, Baudrillards represent Americas perfect expansion of technology with the latest use of loony toons and communication.Cities were alive with people and modern struct ures. both broads of recreations and sports are there recognizing it as the power museum of the world. He even asks himself why he should stupefy in France and be with the fantasm of France when he can even stay in America and do what the Americans do. solely comes here comes Baurillards strict observation. He theorized that America could just be a dream or a reality. He said that although he considers this country untold like Utopia where everything may be in lifelike and in unrealistic state he only see its population as if living in simulation.They can be the model of lesser nations and type corporal of the modern world but they also return flaws and infirmities. He promote discusses that America was like a giant hologram as if all teaching is contained in one whole element and holds everything in place. For example, every state from every direction offered the same services as he delightfully stated America is neither dream nor reality. It is a hyperreality. It is a h yperreality because it is a utopia which has behaved from the very beginning as though it were already achieved.Everything here is real and pragmatic, and yet it is all the stuff of dreams, tooThe Americans, for their part, have no sense of simulation. They are themselves the simulation(Baudrillard, 1989). The book America also talks about the hostility of the ill-judged West, the dazzling sound of the jazz, the vacant and morbid deserts of the South-West, the neon lights of the motels and gang state of war in New York City. He also sees America as a vast empty space with savage and mixed-cultured people populating the cities.In short, he sees America as an advance nation pull throughing with all its circumscribed effects but taking a deeper demeanor inside its system is a hollow society living in an schmalzy world. During his class film lectures, he always discusses about the Vietnam War in the 1960s. He claimed that in reality, America did not win the war on the terra firm a but only paralyzed the small Asian country. Although the US was always depicted as victorious such as on popular movies like The manifestation Now and Platoon, accordingly these films did not significantly depicted reality but were made only for entertainment with the use of modern cinematography.From the french journal Liberation, Baudrillard stated that the 1991 disjunction War did not actually take place. That everything people have seen on TV was only hyperreal images created and manipulated by no less than the newest technology on cinematography. That America has only made a perfect ocular art that artificially portrayed realness to achieve a striking and realistic effect but actually did not presented the real photographic representation of what is skunk the event.Throughout the 1990s, almost all of Baudrillards die focus on hyperreality theme of the postmodern culture and yet his writings are sometimes disjointed and aphoristic. To simply said, his whole kit expr esses his own opinion or even the general truth but not necessarily the reality itself. On the twentieth of November 2005, Deborah Solomon of the New York propagation Magazine interviewed the French philosopher regarding some background and belief of the sample French thoughtual. Solomon desires to dig deeper to discover what is fag end the mans quality as a journalist and a philosopher.From the interview, Baudrillard always respond with alertness and proudly discussed his philosophical views on life, the realities of war, and the posture of man toward logical thinking and unprejudiced suiting. Although the interview leads to a seemingly ridiculous question such as how he believes that the US violation of Iraq was to spread freedom and not war, Baudrillard answered his most rhetoric answer. He stated that What we want is to put the rest of the world on the same level of masquerade and burlesque that we are on, to put the rest of the world into simulation, so all the world b ecomes total artifice and then we are all-powerful.Its a game (cited by Parker, 2005). This led to Solomons conclusion that Baudrillards nouss although are unfathomable at first glance, they are thus far most fascinating and compelling. That this man who uses his intellect to surmise and analyzed things in his most amusing and bewildered manner was a serious man. He median(prenominal)ly uses nomenclature like hyperreal and transistorize to commonly describe on what he believes in. Baudrillard writes with a kind of unstoppable electric lyricism that is fast-paced but transparent. He diced his statements with jargon and sometimes uses technological idiom that provides his prose a metaphorical suppleness.His accounts which he diligently introduced in his book America were put through most depictive and striking description date identifying the facets of the modern American life. Of New York for example, he wrote that It is a world completely stinky with wealth, power, senility, stolidness, puritanism, and mental hygiene, poverty and waste, technological futility and rootless violence, and yet I cannot help but feel it has about it something of the dawning of the world (Parker, 2005). His great influence on literature can also be seen on the blockbuster movie The Matrix.Filmmakers Andy and Larry Wachowski picked the brain when they discover of Baudrillards book Simulacra and mannikin. Although Baudrillard do not like the idea that his shape would be represented in a film that is not real, he said that the scheme of using his work was not properly advised and called for. many people consider his works as unbiased literature that are everlastingly intriguing while they cross the borders of normal criticisms. Mr. Baudrillard tackled different subjects ranging from race and gender, art and literature, to the present day trauma such as the September 11 terrorism.Although his comments are openly misquoted and misunderstood they altogether sparked controve rsy. Nevertheless he was clearly known as more than an observer with alarming analytical psyche and always opinionated with his own subliminal eccentricity. The editor for Lire literary magazine Francois Busnel said of Mr. Baudrillard that he was unique in his own ways because he is very independent in his ideas and does not take sides. Considered as a postmodern guru of our time, his observation and analysis of instantlys society ascend from his own distinction to shape in with any theoretical category.Wearing thick glasses, his look emanates a warm personality although many know him for his black humor and witty aphorisms. He was always quoted for his postulation of straight offs world where everyone lived in his faux world that the real thing has vanished and everything was replaced with artificial feelings and situations. As a proof that things were getting unreal in our world were the physical composition of shopping malls, amusement parks, sensationalized TV programs an d intelligence information programs. Television shows and films are only shake by no less than actors impeccant of authenticity and meaning.He always advises the media that the pursue for reality cannot be truly accomplished because the world today abounds with illusions. His interview in 2005 by no less than The New York Times was all about his beliefs on todays values and the need for freedom. Baudrillard was quoted that all of mans values are imitate and that freedom was the most abuse of all the given privileges. That anybody have a choice between buying veridical things because it is a simulation of freedom. He also criticized the practice of the consumers in which they buy material things out of necessity but of the status and label on the product.Again, as we parent in his travelogue Astral America which he originally wrote in 1986, he was remembered writing that America has all the simulated freedom in purchasing and having things that is not really necessary. For him , Americas advantage in terms of product accessibility is the original version of modernity as the French were just a transcript with subtitles. He could be implying that although America having to exist in complete state of irreality was still adored and looked upon by no less than another great nation as France.Although he was always distant and shunned media most of the time, his articles can frequently be found on newspapers in Paris. The facial expression of Terrorism And Requiem for the Twin Towers was one of his recognized writings which he made in dedication of the 9/11 attack. He argued that through creating self reality, the Islamic fundamentalists have made their own simulation that the West would constantly be their targets for terrorism. Baudrillard was much branded as obscure, indifferent and reversely opinionated because he was unlike other postmodernists as he always disagrees with simple reason out.Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, both power and newspaper publi sher of the 1998 book Fashionable Nonsense postmodern Intellectuals Abuse of Science also have something to say on Baudrillards attitude and comments. They said that, if the texts seem incomprehensible, it is for the excellent reason that they mean precisely nothing (Cohen, 2007). except the French critic does not give a damn on such acid remark. He said that, what Im going to write get out have less and less candidate of being understood but thats my problem (Cohen, 2007),On March 6 this form Jean Baurillard died in Paris of big time illness at the age of 77. The internationally celebrated and influential French intellectual who achieved world fame for his rhetoric that is always incomprehensible by the simplest of mind and the author of more than 50 books left a vacant space in the center of a denser and over-apocalyptic mesh of misunderstood scenarios. A legend of his own kind, he will never be forgotten by those who believe in his underlying principles and queer philosop hical views (Cohen, 2007).Jean Baudrillard may not be so popular to many because of his indifference to the common postmodernist literary figures. But upsetting common analysis of a situation through independent reasoning and protracted logic somewhat free him from the ordinary that are overused and boring. We may never see one like him in our modern age but someone might dare to be different in reasoning just like him and might also provide us a more in-depth perception of things and events.His book America provides us the view on how an intellectual personality like Jean Baurillard sees America from different perspective. In Astral America he introduced us more with a deeper understanding on how a European see America as a modern world but full of artificial elements that produces artificial excitement. Although his determination in writing this travelogue was only to write about a simple travelling experience, many considered this literature as his way to present America to th e people in Europe what in reality America is.References Baudrillard, J. (1989). America Verso. Book. http//books. google. com/books? id=73CCg_I_rKsC&pg=PA27&dq=Jean+Baudrillard+Astral+America&sig=RRWmj6kYLk-pDpemPyPahbeMouk Cohen, P. (2007, March 7, 2007). Jean Baudrillard, 77, connoisseur and Theorist of Hyperreality, Dies The New York Times from http//www. nytimes. com/2007/03/07/books/07baudrillard. hypertext mark-up language? _r=1&oref=slogin Parker, H. (2005). Old Europe, Astral America On Jean Baudrillard, Nassau Weekly. Magazine. http//www. nassauweekly. com/view_article. php? id=408.