Since class last Tuesday, I have been frantically googling and oogling over the works and words of the Frenchman Jean Baudrillard. A cultural theorist, sociologist, philosopher, political commentator and photographer he is best known for his analyses of contemporary culture and media, technological communication and concepts of hyperreality. But what I’m most excited to get into are his diverse subjects on gender relations, social history, art and popular culture.
In touching on the topic of bygone objects and the romanticisation
of antique technologies that leave us feeling nostalgic or moved by the
presence of the past, Baudrillard’s name came into conversation and with a
little bit of research a very interesting book of his called “The Consumer:Society Myths and Structures” came up.
AND IT LOOKS FANTASTIC! Especially that he wrote it in the 70’s
(My favourite era to romanticize and dream (ironically) of what it was to live
in a time of the glitterati, opulent establishment, the disco, the punk, to be
inundated with consumerist feeding frenzies and the way media was
revolutionised.
The book includes
Baudrillard's most organized discussion of mass media culture, the meaning of
leisure and anomie in affluent society. But alas, the book was $65(AU). And a cool sixty on a book is not something a poor student can afford as yet, so I opted
for the next cheapest, ever interesting and post-modern. “The System of Objects” A
cultural critique of the commodity in consumer society, which brilliantly
communicates to us all the live ideas of the day.
I'll let you know what I think when it arrives! I purchased my copy on Booktopia.
