Characteristics of Postmodernism

•  Self-less-ness, Depth-less-ness •  Focus on surfaces, images over reality

Simulation/Simulacra

•  Simulation is the process in which representations of things come to replace the things being represented

•  Representations seem more important than the “real”things themselves

Lady Liberty Stamp

“The Most Photographed Barn in America”

“No one sees the barn,” he said finally. A long silence followed. “Once you’ve seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn . . . “They are taking pictures of taking pictures,” he said (12-13).

Baudrillard

•  According to French theorist Jean Baudrillard, we (as a society) have lost touch with reality.

•  We’re hooked into a simulation of reality, made up of television, the Internet, etc.

•  This simulation not really a fake, a mere copy of something real. It is another reality, that has a power and meaning that is, if anything, greater than that of the “real” real.

Baudrillard on Simulation To dissimulate is to pretend not to have what one has. To simulate is to feign to have what one doesn’t have. One implies a presence, the other an absence. But it is more complicated than that because simulating is not pretending: Whoever fakes an illness can simply stay in bed and make everyone believe he is ill. Whoever simulates an illness produces in himself some of the symptoms. Therefore, pretending, or dissimulating, leaves the principle of reality intact: the difference is always clear, it is simply masked, whereas simulation threatens the difference between the “true” and the “false,” the “real” and the “imaginary.” Is the simulator sick or not, given that he produces “true” symptoms?”

“Of Exactitude in Science”

•  Jorge Luis Borges’ map story

Origins, the “real” no longer as important

• In earlier art, there would be an original and thousands of copies. The original would be of far greater value.

Contrast Certain Art Forms Today

•  CD’s or music recordings. No original valuable in and of itself and kept in a museum. Only copies, all equally valuable.

More Examples

•  Computer icons (no “real” file or document for the symbols to represent)

•  Virtual reality games like “Sim City”--no real city as referent

•  Hypochondriac illnesses, in which patients exhibit all symptoms of actual illness

Cause and Effect

•  Simulated copy supercedes the original

•  Sometimes no originals at all (simulacra), in which case the copy precedes the original

•  Causes and effects, then, often reversed

Simulation/Simulacra in White Noise

•  Can you think of examples where Baudrillard’s ideas about images and simulation are important in White Noise?

From White Noise:

“That’s quite an armband you’ve got there. What does SIMUVAC mean? Sounds important.” “Short for simulated evacuation. A new state program they’re still battling over funds for.” “But this evacuation isn’t simulated. It’s real.” “We know that. But we thought we could use it as a model.” “A form of practice? Are you saying you saw a chance to use the real event in order to rehearse the simulation?” (139)

Importance of Images in White Noise

Events not real unless validated on television: •  Picking Bee up at the airport and learning about

the near plane crash: without a media presence, “they went through all that for nothing” (92).

•  Man at karate studio evacuation center with

television: “Is it possible nobody gives substantial coverage to such a thing?…Are they telling us it was insignificant, piddling? (162).