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Step 4 of 7~8 min read~36 min left
Simulacra, Simulation, and the Orders of Reality
Read the key passages of Baudrillard's analysis of hyperreality alongside the most important critical responses.
“Baudrillard: 'The simulacrum is never what hides the truth, it is truth that hides that there is none. The simulacrum is true.' [...] On Disneyland: 'Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, whereas all of Los Angeles and the America that surrounds it are no longer real, but belong to the hyperreal order and to the order of simulation.' [...] On the Gulf War: 'The Gulf War: a world event that did not take place... What is most extraordinary is that the two hypotheses, that of a war and that of a non-war (a hyperreal operation), are equally catastrophic. That is what is truly vertiginous.' [...] Norris's critique: 'Baudrillard's hyperrealism collapses into a cynical irrationalism that cannot distinguish better from worse representations, true from false accounts, or the interests of the powerful from those of the powerless.' — Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation (1981); The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991); Norris, Uncritical Theory (1992); SEP 'Jean Baudrillard'”