SF-TH Inc

Review: Reading Baudrillard

Author(s): David Banash
Reviewed work(s):
The Vital Illusion by Jean Baudrillard ;Julia Witwer
Simulacrum America: The USA and the Popular Media by Elisabeth Kraus;Carolin Auer
Reading Simulacra: Fatal Theories for Postmodernity by M. W. Smith
Source: Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Mar., 2003), pp. 123-129
Published by: SF-TH Inc
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4241145
Accessed: 07/11/2008 22:51

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 BOOKSIN REVIEW 123

BOOKS IN REVIEW
Reading Baudrillard. Jean Baudrillard.The VitalIllusion. Ed. Julia Witwer.
New York: Columbia UP, 2000. 102 pp. $18.95 hc.
ElisabethKrausand CarolinAuer, eds. SimulacrumAmerica:The USAand the
Popular Media. Rochester, NY: CamdenHouse, 2000. 271 pp. $65.00 hc.
M.W. Smith. Reading Simulacra: Fatal Theoriesfor Postmodermity.SUNY
SERIES INPOSTMODERN CULTURE. New York: State U of New York P, 2001.
151 pp. $16.95 pbk.
The whole problem is one of abandoningcritical thought, which is the very
essence of our theoretical culture, but which belongs to a past history, a past
life.-Baudrillard, ImpossibleExchange (2001) 17
How should we read Jean Baudrillard?This is the real problemat the heart
of two recentbooks thatutilize the work of the Frenchpostmodernist:Elizabeth
Kraus and Carolin Auer's anthology SimulacrumAmerica: The USA and the
Popular Media and M.W. Smith's Reading Simulacra: Fatal Theoriesfor
Postmodernity.Both provide possible answersto this questionas they mobilize
Baudrillard'stheoriesof simulationto analyzepopularculture,postmodernism,
and sf. It is perhaps Baudrillardhimself, however, who provides the most
challenginganswer to the questionof how he shouldbe read. In one of his most
recent works, The Vital Illusion, he abandons the traditionalmethods and
vocabulariesof theory. Indeed, his work now seems closer to what might best
be understoodas social science fiction. ApproachingBaudrillardas social sf
creates a number of problems for both theory and sf, however, and it is these
problems that have kept critics from attemptinga more radicalre-inventionof
his work.
The post-structuralistvogue of the 1980s has largely disappeared,and it
seems as if we are not quite living in a panic cultureafter all. Indeed, the more
sober voices of less radical Marxists and culturalcritics have had a great deal
of success in co-opting the vocabularies of Derrida, Lyotard, Deleuze, and
Baudrillard,assimilatingthem into any numberof more practical approaches
and concrete explorationsof postmodernculture. Of all the post-structuralists,
it is Baudrillardwho has been most closely associatedwith the triangulationof
postmodernism,popularculture, and sf, and it is also Baudrillardwho is seen
as the most provocative. He is often caricaturedas little more thana sophomoric
nihilist, celebrating his own celebrity status, grossly misreadingculture, and
generallytrying to live up to the worst excesses and absurditiesassociatedwith
the discoursesof postmodernism.Nonetheless,critics still findthatBaudrillard's
work provides constructiveapproachesto the problems of our media, and his
arguments continue to animate the work of critics from Marxists such as
Douglas Kellner to culturalcritics such as Lynn Spigel. In many respects, it is
somethinglike this more sober Baudrillardthatwe fimdin SimulacrumAmerica:
The USAand the Popular Media.
124 SCIENCE FICTIONSTUDIES, VOLUME 30 (2003)

Editedby ElisabethKrausand CarolinAuer, SimulacrumAmericaconsists

of seventeen essays originally presentedas papers at the annualconference of
the Austrian Association for American Studies in 1997. Though these essays
cover topics from nineteenth-centuryliterature to contemporary cinema,
postmodernfiction and sf nonetheless remainat the heart of the collection, the
former represented by a selection of five essays entitled "Simulacra in
Literature:History and Human Identity"and the latter in a selection of five
essays grouped under the title "Simulationin Science Fiction: Cyberspace,
Cyborgs, and Cybernetic Discourse." With so many essays, the quality tends
to be somewhat uneven. Still, as I hope to show, even the less accomplished
essays say a great deal about the ways in which we read Baudrillard.The
collection has an ambitiousintroduction,andKrausandAuer are acutelyaware
of both the problems and possibilities associatedwith the work of Baudrillard.
After offering a brief survey of Baudrillard'stheory of simulation,they make
the following observation:
Critics andtheoristsfrom a wide varietyof disciplines, such as FredricJameson,
Donna Haraway, and Larry McCaffery, agree with Baudrillardthat science
fiction has become the pre-eminentliterary genre of the postmodernera, since
it has long anticipatedand fictionally explored the drastic transformationsthat
technology, including the fields of information/simulationtechnology and
bioengineering, have wrought on Western post-industrial society. Science
fiction's wealth of futuristic themes and topoi including powerful icons of
cyberspace, Artificial Intelligence, and bordercrossings of all kinds, as well as
its simulations of limitless alternative utopian, dystopian, and heterotopian
realities, gave importantimpulses to mainstreamfiction and culturalanalysts in
general. In fact, as Istvan Csicsery-Ronay,Jr., argues in his essay "The SF of
Theory: Baudrillardand Haraway," science fiction has ceased to be a genre of
fiction per se, and become instead a mode of awarenessabout the world. (5)
In some sense, Krausand Auer promise more thanthey deliver. While they
cite Csicsery-Ronay'sessay (SFS 18.3 [Nov. 1991]: 387-404), this introduction,
and unhappily the collection as a whole, do little to develop the new
understandingof sf or theory that Csicsery-Ronaysuggests. Indeed, the real
flaw of this collection is that Baudrillard'swork is simply appliedas a critical
theory of the world, when it is precisely the distance implied by the critical
operationthat Baudrillard'swork calls into question.
This is not to say that there are not some strong essays about post-
modernism and sf in the book. Riidiger Kunow's essay, "Simulationas Sub-
Text: Fiction Writing in the Face of Media Representationsof American
History," provides an excellent survey of both canonical and postmodern
literary texts, demonstratingthroughoutthat these historical fictions are less
"reconstructionsof the past thandemonstrationsof the power of thatpast in the
present" (34). Alen Vitas offers a compelling reading of cyberpunk in his
contribution,"Warp9 to Hyperreality:InformationVelocity andthe Endof the
Space Age. " Workingthroughcyberpunkclassics andpopularfilms such as Star
Wars, Vitas argues that "Mediaspace now replaces outer space, and
consequently, simulationsof kinesis and informationvelocity now replace the
 BOOKS
INREVIEW 125

earlierfascination withphysicalspeed"(125).HerbertShu-Shun Chanexplores

the metaphorof spacein Neuromancer andBabylon5, suggestingalongwith
Vitas that we need to rethinkthe relationshipof cyberpunkto the more
traditionalthemes of space opera. In keepingwith the cyberpunkfocus,
ElisabethKrausoffers a detailedsurveyandanalysisof PatCadigan'swork,
andLouisJ. Kernoffersan exploration of thenostalgiafor fullyhumanbodies
that animatesmuch cyborg fiction and film. For sf scholars,these essays
constitutethe real interestof this book. The rest of the collectioncoversan
amazingamountof ground,butthecontributions varywidelyin subjectmatter
andquality.
Nonetheless,almostall the essays at least gesturetowardsBaudrillard's
theoryof simulation,andmanymoretakehis theoryof simulation astheirbasic
criticalposition.For a collectionthattakesBaudrillard's theoryof simulation
as partof its very subject,thereis surprisinglylittle nuancedreadingof his
work, andthe collectionas a whole seemsto reflecta widerproblemin our
currentreceptionof Baudrillard's work.In short,thebasicmovethatanimates
most of these essays is to elucidatethe premiseof Baudrillard's theoryof
simulation,andthenclaimthatthisor thattextfunctionsin accordwithit. For
instance,ArnoHeller'sreadingof Don DeLillo'sWhiteNoise (1985) claims
that "Gladney'sconfrontation with Minkcan be interpreted as his comingto
termswith an AmericathatJeanBaudrillard has so persuasivelydepictedas a
systemof simulationsin the endlessstreamof meaninglesssignsandimages"
(45). The conclusionis that somehowDeLillo offers a kind of proof for
Baudrillard.Thereis no sense that DeLillo mighthelp us somehowbetter
understand,or better yet reinvent,Baudrillard,or vice-versa. Far more
problematically, suchapplicationsof Baudrillardian theorytreathis workas if
it were an objective descriptionof our world, an optionthat Baudrillard
problematizes by puttinghis own workin the realmof hyperrealsimulation
itself. In short, despitethe promiseof the introduction,there is almostno
attemptto reinventBaudrillard here,as socialsf or anythingelse, andthisis the
case withall the essaysthatuse his work.Furthermore, MichaelStockinger's
essayon DeLilloandBaudrillard goes on to claimthat"thesubmergence of the
readerin a narrativeusuallyproducesa more mind-baffling effect thanthe
consumptionof a theoreticalessay. The skillful 'suspensionof disbelief
demandsmore imaginative,creative,and thereforeillusionarypotentialon
behalfof the writeras well as thereader"(62). Sucha statementleavesone to
wonderif this contributor has actuallyreadBaudrillard. It is not, however,as
if less-than-innovative
approaches toBaudrillard orpost-structuralism ingeneral
arehardto find. Indeed,whatthiscollectionrevealsmorethananythingis our
dire need to stop the "criticalapplication"and insteadreinventour entire
approachto Baudrillard.
Thoughnot preciselyan attemptto reinventBaudrillard, M.W. Smith's
ReadingSimulacra:Fatal Theoriesfor Postmodernity providesa far more
interestingandusefulapproachto his work.In its firstfourchapters,Reading
Simulacraoffersa broadsurveyof postmodern theorythroughaninvestigation
of Baudrillard'smajorpositions,using these to bringtogethera numberof
126 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 30 (2003)

thinkers, including Nietzsche, Derrida, Foucault, Rorty, and most importantly

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Smith proposes a "bi-focal" approachto
readingBaudrillard,arguingthatto take him at his word and admitthatwe live
in a world of total simulation is to abandon all hope of a critical or active
engagementwith the world. To rescue us from this bind, Smith proposes that
we attendclosely to the work of Deleuze and Guattari.According to Smith:
The difference in subjective and objective strategiesnotwithstanding,Deleuze
and Guattarimight yet find a place in the hyperrealtopographyof Baudrillard.
The distinguishingfactor setting them apart is that the latter sees this societal
leveling of images (simulation)as producingan undimensionalsubjectivitythat
is fatal, whereasthe formerlooks towardsimulation's"mutationalaptitude"and
the potentialfor "becoming"that it allows. (8)
Though Smith never dwells on this, what is clear is that theory, be it
Baudrillard'sconcept of simulationor Deleuze and Guattari'sof becoming, is
never a matterof mimetic texts that somehow faithfullyrepresentthe world in
any realistic sense. Indeed, for Smith such an approach guarantees a fatal
exchange that would trap us in the worst kind of Baudrillardiannightmare.
Though Smith doesn't propose sf as one of the perspectivesthroughwhich he
is reading Baudrillard, he does put it on the same plane. Again, working
throughthe bind in Baudrillard'stheory of simulation, and looking for a way
out, Smith offers the following analogy:
In otherwords, is it possible to "will," in a Nietzschianspirit, beyondthese fatal
strategies in life-affirming ways (Baudrillard's apprehension, Kroker's
invitation)? Or is humanity moving ever faster to the cyber-call of William
Gibson's Neuromancer;toward a state of symbiosis with the machine, which
issues in the end of lived experiences for human beings and the entry into a
simulated, virtual or cybernetic world of existence? (18)
Though he doesn't call attentionto the fact, what is most strikinghere is that
both cyberpunkfiction and Baudrillard'stheory offer descriptionsof the world
that are equally plausible, equally worth thinking about. Insofar as we read
cyberpunkas social sf, should we not also read Baudrillardand other theorists
as in some way part of the same fantasticdiscourse? Smith certainly doesn't
explore this possibility, but his book does suggest the plausibility of such
reading strategies. Rather than turning to sf or the fantastic to find new
strategiesof reading, however, Smith turnsto Nietzsche, ArthurKroker, and
the history of philosophy:
[W]e "will to will" as a condition of existence in the nihilistic cycle of
consuming the signs of consumption provided by a recombinant culture:
"Nietzsche's 'pessimism' (which is really the method of 'perspectival'
understanding)becomes an entirely realistic strategyfor exploring postmodern
experience. And this event, the interpretationof advancedcapitalistsociety under
the sign of nihilism, is the basic conditionfor humanemancipationas well as for
the recovery of the tragic sense of critical theory." (Kroker, qtd 62-63)
While Smith thus offers an affirmative reading of post-structuralistand
postmodern theory, it is not a particularly original or daring reinvention.
 INREVIEW
BOOKS 127

Nonetheless,his bookservesas anexcellentoverviewof Baudrillard's writing,

and would be especiallyuseful to studentsnew to such work. Thoughnot
surprising,his attemptto synthesizeBaudrillard andDeleuzeandGuattariis
suggestive,andfor thosenewto DeleuzeandGuattari,Smithalsoprovidesan
excellentandusableintroduction anddifficult
to theirnotoriouslyidiosyncratic
concepts.
The secondhalf of ReadingSimulacraoffersappliedreadingsof the usual
postmodern suspects:KathyAcker,OliverStone,andO.J. Simpson,as well as
America(1988)andthenovelistClarenceMajor'sMyAmputations
Baudrillard's
(1986).Thesechaptersvarywidelyin scopeandqualitywhencomparedto the
solid theoreticaldiscussionsearlierin the book. Smithoffers a detailedand
compellingreadingof Acker'stwo best knownand most accessiblenovels,
Blood and Guts in High School (1984) and Don Quixote(1986). He offers the
typical Baudrillardianreading of Acker's work: "the fatal motions of
postmodemityin 'humanity'and 'sexuality'are possessedandtattooedwith
patriarchialimages"(86). However,he goes on to offer simultaneously "a
Deleuzianstrategyfor readingher works[that]offersa schizophrenic line of
flightthroughdesireandlanguageto escapethe codingof ourmolarselvesin
contemporary culture"(87). This strategyis particularly fittingwith Acker's
novels, and Smithmanagesto engagein just the kindof affirmativebi-focal
readingthathis introduction promised.
Fatal Theoriesendsquiteoddly,however.Afterbuildingall the apparatus
for affirmativereadingsof thewaysin whichDeleuzeandGuattari mighthelp
us renegotiateBaudrillard'sworldof simulation,Smithoffersa finalreadingof
the O.J. SimpsontrialandOliverStone'sNaturalBornKillers(1994). Smith
offershis analysisof Stone'sfilmas a critiqueof a worldthatactuallyproduced
the O.J1trial, andin the endthe trialandthe film mergetogether.However,
thereis no sensethatStoneor the trialcouldofferus momentsof Deleuzian
becoming.Instead,Smithsayson thefinalpageof his bookthat"whatviewers
takeawayat the conclusionof this movie [NaturalBornKillers]is the 'Evil
Demonof Images'thatJeanBaudrillard refersto in a bookby the sametitle"
(128). So much for a new and affirmativeapproachto Baudrillardand
postmodernism. Instead,it seems that Smithsays what we knew all along:
Acker's work is so obsessedwith stereotypesand extremesthat it offers
amazingpossibilitiesforbecomingandcritique,whilenewstainment television
andOliverStoneareso reactiveandheavy-handed thatevenDeleuzewouldn't
be ableto figurethemout.
Whatevertheirmeritsor flaws,boththesebooksdealingwithBaudrillard's
theoryof simulationreveal that Baudrillardis still his own best and most
inventivereader.Trueto form,Baudrillard's VitalIllusionoffersnothingnew.
Indeed,his latestworkmightbe bestunderstood as readingsor applicationsof
his earlierbooks, simplyofferingus simulationsof his earlierwork on the
critiqueof value,thenatureof images,technologiesof communication, andthe
problemsof postmodernism.In The VitalIllusion,he presentsthreeessays:
"The Final Solution:Cloning Beyond the Humanand Inhuman,""The
Millennium,or theSuspenseof theYear2000,"and"TheMurderof theReal."
128 SCIENCEFICTIONSTUDIES,VOLUME30 (2003)

As the editorstell us, each was originallypresentedas partof the Wellek

LibraryLecturesin CriticalTheoryat the Universityof California,Irvine,in
1999.
In his other recentbook, Impossible Exchange (2001), JeanBaudrillard
statesthatforpostmodernism, "Thewholeproblemis oneof abandoning critical
thought,whichis theveryessenceof ourtheoretical culture,butwhichbelongs
to a pasthistory,a pastlife" (London:Verso,2001, 17). It is justthisproblem
thatBaudrillard has devotedhis energiesto, andwe mightwell interprethis
careerover the pastdecade,or at leastsincethe publication of America, as a
movementfurtherandfurtherawayfromthelimitsandlanguagesof criticism.
Baudrillard seemsto be moresuccessfulin his attemptsto do thisthanalmost
anyoneelse, as his detractors constantlyremindanyonewhois willingto listen.
For Marxistssuch as TerryEagleton,Baudrillard's denunciation of critical
theoryis nothingless thansellingoutto theworstkindsof designercapitalism.
And while suchcritics as DouglasKellnerandM.W. Smithtry to find new
ways to read Baudrillardthat will rescuehis theoryof simulationfor the
purposesof critique,Baudrillard himselfseemsto flee fromsuchcapturemore
with each new work. Indeed,it is difficultto readBaudrillard as a theorist
anymore,andThe VitalIllusionconfirmsthatBaudrillard is no longerinterested
in workingthroughtraditional criticalvocabularies.
Baudrillard beginshis firstessaywiththe followingcaveat:"Thequestion
concerningcloningis the questionof immortality. We all wantimmortality. It
is our ultimatefantasy,a fantasythat is also at work in all of our modern
sciencesandtechnologies-atwork,for example,in thedeepfreezeof cryonic
suspensionand in cloning in all its manifestations"(3). Making such
pronouncements, Baudrillard's mostrecentworkfeels like sf, or at leastas if
he were somethinglike a characterhimselfin a postmodernnovel or film,
perhapssomeonelike Dr. BrianO'Blivionin DavidCronenberg's Videodrome
(1982). However, Baudrillard'sown attitudetowardssf is complex. In
Simulacra and Simulation(1994), he arguesthat"thegood old imaginaryof
sciencefictionis dead... [and]somethingelse is intheprocessof emerging(not
only in fictionbutin theoryas well)"(AnnArbor:U MichiganP, 1994, 121).
Yet the essays in The Vital Illusion seem to work on some of the most
traditional sf models,takingrecenttechnological advancessuchas cloningand
imagininghow they may in fact affect us in the very near future.Indeed,
Baudrillard goes on to write aboutthe technologyof cloning,projectingthe
technologyinto a perfectfuturethatit hasyet to achieve:"fromthismoment
on it is possibleto ask if we are still dealingwithhumanbeings.Is a species
thatsucceedsin synthesizingits own immortality,andthatseeksto transform
itself into pure information,still particularlya humanspecies?"(16). That
anyonehasyet to succeedin synthesizing immortalityis, forBaudrillard, of no
real concern.As in muchsf, Baudrillard does an amazingjob of identifying
thosetechnologicalandsocialissuesboundup withouranxieties,andhe plays
out the worst-casescenarioin a kindof dystopianvision.
Baudrillard is certainlynotthe onlycriticto chafeat the limitsandlogical
bindsof theoreticallanguage.Indeed,in one of themoreinterestingeffortsto
 INREVIEW
BOOKS 129

engagepostmoderndiscourseas somethingotherthana discourseof critical

theory,StevenShaviro'sDoom Patrols(1997) attemptsto operatein accord
with its subtitleA TheoreticalFiction aboutPostmodernism.For Shaviro,Doom
Patrols "is a theoreticalfictionaboutpostmodernism. A theoreticalfiction,
becauseI treatdiscursiveideas andargumentsin a way analogousto how a
novelisttreatscharactersand events"(New York: Serpent'sTail, 1997, i).
While Shaviro'sexplanationsoundsradical,his work stays muchcloser to
traditionalmodelsandlanguagesof criticismthanhis introduction promises.
Baudrillard,withoutthebenefitof beingquiteso self-consciousaboutit, seems
to go beyondeventhepretenseof an analogyto fiction,insteadsimplywriting
workthatreally is fiction.Whatstrikesone most aboutBaudrillard's recent
work is thathe has almostentirelyabandonedthe technicalvocabulariesof
criticism,even whenhe engagestraditional theoreticalproblems.
Overten yearsago, SFSdevotedan entireissueto sf andpostmodernism
(18.3 [Nov. 1991]:305-464).In his contribution, IstvanCsicsery-Ronay Jr.,
was particularly concernedwithBaudrillard's critiqueof sf, notingthat"once
the referentbecomesa readoutof the sign, andexistencea readoutof control
models,theory'sconditionof possibilityhas beenabsorbedin the operational
program"(391). Herewe see Baudrillard's objectionto the objectiveposture
of mostcriticism,butthe samecritiqueappliesto sf itself: "WhatBaudrillard
considersthe traditionalcharmsof sciencefiction-projection,extrapolation,
excessive'pantography'-become impossible,becausespaceno longeroffers
a scenefor overcomingfundamental differences"(391). Justas theorycanno
longerstandbackfromtheworldit purportsto describe,sf no longerhas the
literalor metaphoric spaceto imaginea future.In short,"SFdisappears intoits
ownpresence"(392).Tenyearslater,however,it seemsthatthesepositionsare
themselvesthe social sf of Baudrillard's work. In essence, like any good sf
writer,Baudrillard asksus to imaginea world.Inhis new essay "TheMurder
of theReal,"thisis "aworldwhereeverythingthatexistsonlyas idea,dream,
fantasy,utopiawill be eradicated,becauseit will be immediatelyrealized,
operationalized ... a perfectworld,expurgated of everyillusion"(66-67).
To readBaudrillard's workas socialsf is to rethinkthe spacein whichhe
works.Indeed,isn'tit preciselyBaudrillard's theoryof simulationthatis itself
the mosttraditionalsf aspectof his work?ForBaudrillard, sf andtheoryhave
no roomto move, forbotharenowsimplypartof a deadcriticaldiscourse.Yet
althoughBaudrillardgives a convincingaccountof some aspects of our
postmodernworld,few readersareultimatelypersuadedto acceptthe totality
of his claims,especiallyhis mostradicalideathatwe adoptthefatalstrategyof
theobject.Theproblemis thatwe eitherapplyBaudrillard as a criticaltheorist
or dismisshim as a lunaticnihilist,while he still seems to be attemptingto
redefmehimselfas an sf author.CouldBaudrillard becomemoreusefuland
relevantif we reinventhimthroughtheperspectives of sf, andcouldsf criticism
be in parttransformed throughBaudrillard?Thisseemsto be thepromiseof his
mostrecentwork, andthe challengethathe has givento contemporary critics
who go on to applyhis work.-David Banash,Universityof Iowa