Reading Order
Simulacres et simulationSimulacres et simulation Reading Order
Simulacres et simulation (Simulacra and Simulation, 1981) by Jean Baudrillard is the most widely read and most influential work of Baudrillard's mature period — the book in which he develops the concept of the simulacrum (a copy without an original) and the hyperreal (a reality more real than reality) to analyze the condition of contemporary society, in which representations have replaced the reality they once represented and there is no longer any distinction between the map and the territory. The most famous formulation is the 'procession of simulacra': in the first order, the image is a faithful copy of an original; in the second, the image distorts the original; in the third, the image masks the absence of an original; in the fourth, the image has no relation to any reality whatsoever — it is its own simulacrum. Baudrillard was deeply influenced by the Situationist International, by Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle (1967), and by Marshall McLuhan's media theory; Simulacres et simulation is the most systematic development of these influences into a comprehensive theory of contemporary hyperreality. The book became famous internationally when the Wachowskis based The Matrix (1999) on it — the film opens with a shot of Neo's copy of the book — though Baudrillard himself said the film fundamentally misunderstood his argument.
Where to start
Read Simulacres et simulation after reading Baudrillard's earlier work on the consumer society — La Société de consommation (1970) and Pour une critique de l'économie politique du signe (1972) — which provide the theoretical foundations that Simulacres et simulation presupposes. Start with the title essay 'Simulacres et simulation'; the essays on Disneyland and on Watergate are among the most accessible and most celebrated.
Complete Simulacres et simulation Book List
- 1Buy
Simulacres et simulation
Jean Baudrillard·1981·Start with the title essay and the Disneyland essay; the hyperreal and the simulacrum; the four orders of the image; the most widely read Baudrillard - 2Buy
La Société de consommation
Jean Baudrillard·1970·The Consumer Society — the theoretical predecessor; consumer society as a system of signs rather than of needs; the essential predecessor to Simulacres et simulation - 3Buy
L'Échange symbolique et la mort
Jean Baudrillard·1976·Symbolic Exchange and Death — the radical Baudrillard; the challenge of symbolic exchange (gift, sacrifice, death) to the code; read after Simulacres et simulation - 4Buy
Amérique
Jean Baudrillard·1986·America — the travel essay on the United States as the fulfillment of hyperreality; the most readable Baudrillard; Disneyland to the desert; read alongside Simulacres - 5Buy
La Guerre du Golfe n'a pas eu lieu
Jean Baudrillard·1991·The Gulf War Did Not Take Place — the most controversial application of simulacrum theory; the media Gulf War as the perfect hyperreal event; test case for Baudrillard's thesis
Simulacres et simulation — Frequently Asked Questions
What is a simulacrum?
A simulacrum (from the Latin simulacrum, image or likeness) is, in Baudrillard's usage, a copy without an original — a representation that does not represent any pre-existing reality but generates its own 'reality effect.' The key distinction is between a representation (which refers to something real, however distortedly) and a simulacrum (which has cut its ties to any referent and operates on its own logic). The classic example is the map in Borges's fable ('On Exactitude in Science') that becomes so detailed it covers the entire territory it maps: eventually the territory deteriorates and what is left is the map — the representation has replaced the reality. Baudrillard's argument is that contemporary society has reached this condition: the media, advertising, and consumption create a hyperreal that is more real than the reality it was supposed to represent.
What is Disneyland's role in Baudrillard's argument?
Baudrillard's analysis of Disneyland is one of the most celebrated passages in Simulacres et simulation: Disneyland is a simulacrum, he argues — but its function is not to represent a fantasy world but to make everything outside Disneyland seem real. Disneyland presents itself as imaginary so that the surrounding 'real' world of Los Angeles, consumer America, appears genuinely real by contrast. But Disneyland's success as a simulacrum reveals that the surrounding reality is itself a simulacrum — that Los Angeles and consumer America are as imaginary, as hyperreal, as Disneyland, and that the difference between the 'fantasy' inside the park and the 'reality' outside it is itself a simulation. The argument was enormously influential in cultural studies of theme parks, tourism, and media reality.
What did Baudrillard think of The Matrix?
Jean Baudrillard said publicly that The Matrix (1999), which was explicitly based on Simulacres et simulation (the book appears in the film as the hidden compartment where Neo stores his illicit software) fundamentally misunderstood his argument. The Matrix presents hyperreality as a false world that hides a true reality (the real world underground where the humans are); Baudrillard's point is precisely that there is no longer any distinction between simulation and reality — there is no 'real' world behind the simulation. The Matrix is a simulacrum theory film that depends on a distinction between real and unreal that simulacrum theory denies. Baudrillard said: 'The Matrix is exactly what was happening in our world: technology is taking over, and the illusion of the real is becoming the real.' But the film's structure still requires a real to be liberated into.
How is Baudrillard related to the Situationist International?
Baudrillard's analysis of the spectacle and hyperreality is deeply indebted to Guy Debord's La Société du spectacle (1967), the founding Situationist text, which argues that in contemporary capitalism 'all that was once directly lived has become mere representation.' Baudrillard takes Debord's spectacle theory further: for Debord, the spectacle is the alienation of real life into representation; for Baudrillard, there is no longer any 'real life' beneath the spectacle from which it could be alienated — the spectacle has become hyperreal, the simulation has replaced the original. This is Baudrillard's most important departure from Debord and from Marxist critical theory generally: the category of alienation (which requires a real to be alienated from) has been superseded by the simulacrum (which operates without any original real).
What was Baudrillard's Gulf War claim?
Baudrillard published three essays in Libération and The Guardian in 1991 — before, during, and after the First Gulf War — arguing that 'the Gulf War will not take place,' 'the Gulf War is not really taking place,' and 'the Gulf War did not take place.' The claim was widely misread as the denial that real people died; Baudrillard's actual argument was that the Gulf War was not a war in the classic sense (a confrontation between two armies in the same space) but a media hyperreal event — a simulation of war in which the images and information flows of CNN replaced the reality of the conflict. The real military campaign was beneath the simulacrum; what the world watched and experienced as 'the Gulf War' was the hyperreal media event. The essays were collected in La Guerre du Golfe n'a pas eu lieu (1991), Baudrillard's most controversial publication.
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