<nettime> Baudrillard - in memoriam [2x]

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Table of Contents:

   Paradox Funeral / =?ISO-8859-1?B?4CA=?=Jean Baudrillard                         
     Aliette <aliette@criticalsecret.org>                                            

   Slight Revision: Baudrillard - in memoriam, for The Nouvel Observateur          
     "Paul D. Miller" <anansi1@earthlink.net>                                        



------------------------------

Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 01:07:44 +0100
From: Aliette <aliette@criticalsecret.org>
Subject: Paradox Funeral / =?ISO-8859-1?B?4CA=?=Jean Baudrillard

Sorry, my message is too much long and more circumstantial for allow a
writing in a bad English. My idea being that any one may be interested by
Baudrillard's funerals can translate it and forward it, because his funeral=
s
were really very special and both sad and funny -ironically. That is an
agreement from his thought.

So it is in French (may be google translator can give an idea of what
happened yesterday) :




L'inhumation de Jean Baudrillard



    D=E9sormais, monsieur Finkielkraut aura tout mon respect.

Je me suis toujours pos=E9 des questions sur la singularit=E9 de Alain
Finkielkraut, qui nourrit une pens=E9e sociale extr=EAmement r=E9actionnaire du
point de vue de ses go=FBts et des solutions =E9radicatrices qu'il propose sur
les ondes de Radio France ou dans la Presse, et en m=EAme temps qui invita
Baudrillard pourtant =E0 l'=E9poque o=F9 ce dernier =E9tait tr=E8s contest=E9 au titre
d'un =E9ventuel anti-s=E9mitisme, qu'on attribuait =E0 tort =E0 ses th=E8ses
r=E9versibles =E0 propos de l'Islam. Je me disais qu'il devait =EAtre extr=EAmement
masochiste car chacun connaissant moindrement Jean Baudrillard savait que
nul ne peut apprivoiser sa pens=E9e, seulement la d=E9fendre ou la rejeter.

Bref, je ne savais pas vraiment que penser de Alain Finkielkraut, ni =E0 quoi
il servait comme homme de media : maintenant je le sais.

Alain Finkielkraut est un homme indispensable.

Voici les circonstances et les faits.


    La tombe de Jean Baudrillard est dans la 8e division du cimeti=E8re du
Montparnasse, quartier de Paris o=F9 de son vivant il r=E9sidait. Il a =E9t=E9
inhum=E9 le mardi 13 mars dans le plus grand d=E9pouillement de la c=E9r=E9monie, c=
e
qui n'avait rien d'=E9tonnant de sa part, ni que les condol=E9ances n'auraient
pas lieu, si ce n'=E9taient la pr=E9sence nombreuse de ses fid=E8les amis, de ses
amateurs respectueux (en bien plus grand nombre qu'on n'aurait pu le
croire), des intellectuels, et de nombreuses personnalit=E9s, tous venus lui
rendre hommage, parmi lesquels le ministre de la culture Renaud Donnedieu d=
e
Vabres, pris au d=E9pourvu devant tant d'int=E9r=EAt international soudain d=E9voil=
=E9
par la Presse =E9trang=E8re, avouant en conclusion de sa br=E8ve allocution,
incantation d=E9sempar=E9e au retour de l'avant-garde, suivie de : "J'aurais
bien voulu parler avec Jean Baudrillard... Maintenant, il me reste =E0 le
lire."

Preuve qu'il se sentait dans un environnement compr=E9hensif pour l'entendre
sans lui en vouloir (parce qu'on ne lui attribue aucune importance - et il
le sentait bien).

Ce n'est pas le seul paradoxe des v=E9rit=E9s r=E9v=E9l=E9es par la c=E9r=E9monie devant
le public =E9berlu=E9, =E0 l'=E9coute de Alain Finkielkraut (surprise qu'il fut l=E0,
mais ce qu'il dit nous permit de comprendre que c'=E9taient les dieux qui
l'avaient envoy=E9), d=E9clarant qu'il ne se passait pas un jour sans qu'il ne
lise Jean Baudrillard, dont toujours il tenait un livre ouvert sur son
bureau ; mais (adoptant soudain un ton impatient et exc=E9d=E9) que d'un autre
c=F4t=E9, fr=E9quenter la pens=E9e de Jean Baudrillard lui posait un grave probl=E8me
personnel car : "le syst=E8me de l'objet, L'Am=E9rique, le soul=E8vement des
banlieues, le onze septembre, l'Islam flamboyant, et nos villes infest=E9es d=
e
graffitis : =E7a... NON !"

Ce qui fait tout de m=EAme beaucoup - rendant l'attrait d'autant plus =E9trange=
.

Quant =E0 Jacques Donzelot, avec Baudrillard complices d'activisme p=E9dagogiqu=
e
=E0 Nanterre, au temps du mouvement du 22 mars, en 1968, d=E9clarant =E0 son tour=
,
histoire de faire sortir le diable du b=E9nitier, comme on disait dans la
campagne fran=E7aise autrefois, que lors d'une conversation r=E9cente =E0 trois
avec une personnalit=E9, celle-ci leur avait pos=E9 la question (comme Donzelot
ne parlait pas haut, je n'ai pas entendu distinctement qui, ni les
circonstances exactes mais ce que j'ai bien entendu - et nous sommes
plusieurs =E0 l'avoir entendu) : "Etes-vous d=E9mocrates ?" et Donzelot
racontant qu'il se tourne alors vers Baudrillard : "Es-tu d=E9mocrate ?" ce
dernier r=E9pondant au comble de l'=E9nigme pour leur interlocuteur, mais =E0
haute voix : "ce n'est pas une question qu'on pose =E0 un ami."

... Eclat de rire g=E9n=E9ral parmi les amis de Jean B.

Si Jacques Donzelot r=E9ussit =E0 nous extraire de la tristesse g=E9n=E9rale, il
reste que sans Alain Finkielkraut : qui aurait actualis=E9 la pr=E9occupation
collective de Jean Baudrillard ? Et bien voil=E0, c'est fait, c'est Alain
Finkielkraut qui l'a dit. Gr=E2ce =E0 lui, le parti =E9mergent de Baudrillard
contre l'oppression sous toutes ses formes sort de l'ombre, toute ambigu=EFt=E9
=E9tant lev=E9e. Merci.

Tant il est vrai qu'"il faut de tout pour faire bien faire un monde".

Un peu plus loin, =E0 l'entr=E9e du cimeti=E8re, vers l'avenue Edgar Quinet,
veillent d'un c=F4t=E9 Jean-Paul Sartre et Simone de Beauvoir, et de l'autre
Roland Topor, parmi les tombeaux ici qui comptent au coeur de la modernit=E9
et de la post-modernit=E9 critique, et bien d'autres, dont celui de Charles
Baudelaire.


    Etrangement encore, ce fut une des journ=E9es les plus pollu=E9es de la
saison =E0 Paris. Le stationnement avait =E9t=E9 d=E9clar=E9 gratuit dans toute la
ville, il faisait doux et il y avait du soleil, de sorte qu'apr=E8s la
c=E9r=E9monie personne ne s'emp=EAcha de s'attarder pour =E9voquer les souvenirs,
aux terrasses des caf=E9s... Il y avait ceux qui anticipaient leur d=E9jeuner
avec un verre de vin, et ceux qui achevaient d'une tartine et d'un th=E9 leur
petit d=E9jeuner interrompu plus t=F4t le matin, car l'enterrement eut lieu =E0 1=
0
heures pr=E9cises, ce qui faisait t=F4t pour qui venait de loin.

Revenue des retrouvailles =E0 propos de l'inhumation de Jean, le tout en
feed-back porta bas mon =E9nergie au travail. Au lieu de somnoler devant
l'=E9cran de mon ordinateur, je me suis allong=E9e sur mon lit, choqu=E9e,
=E9puis=E9e, incapable de dormir sinon rester dans un =E9tat de r=EAve =E9veill=E9,
jusqu'=E0 la nuit... Voil=E0, c'=E9tait fini.

L'enterrement de Jean Baudrillard se d=E9roula comme dans un r=EAve
pataphysique. Cela lui aurait plu.

Au moins, lui, il survivra par son oeuvre, tant de gens important restant =E0
devoir le lire, et les autres souffrant de le lire sans discontinuer, =E0
devoir encore en jouir de remettre =E0 plus tard de le comprendre.

Jean notre grand ami cruel et tendre.


De la part d'Aliette Guibert


Exit /  Any quotes extracts from McKenzie Wark posts on Empyre list :

"What do you expect a 'successful' revolution to look like? It is
paradise." (America, p98)

"Ours is a crisis of historical ideals facing up to the impossibility
of their realisation. Theirs is the crisis of an acheived utopia,
confronted with the problem of its duration and permanence."
(America, 77)

"Americans can only imagine and combat an enemy in their own image.
They are at once both missionaries and converts to their own way of
life, which they triumphantly project onto the world."
(TGWDNTP, 37)

"One day they will rebuild Disneyland at Disneyworld."
(Cool Memories II, 42)





------------------------------

Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 05:40:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Paul D. Miller" <anansi1@earthlink.net>
Subject: Slight Revision: Baudrillard - in memoriam, for The Nouvel Observateur

Please use this one instead!

Baudrillard: A Remembrance of Things Unpassed

By Paul D. Miller aka Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid

I first met Jean Baudrillard at a conference Sylvere Lottringer of Semiotex=
t(e) organized in Las Vegas several years  ago. The idea of the conference =
was about chance processes. Needless to say, with the Whiskey Casino as the=
 backdrop for the conference, and randomness as the main motif of the situa=
tion, the soundtrack of the constant churning of slot machine wheels and pu=
lleys, and the continuous movement of the attendees between speeches and ga=
mbling, it all seemed totally appropriate. Baudrillard gave his speech dres=
sed in a gold suit in simulation of Elvis, and I ran my speech through vari=
ous software processes to turn it into the sound of water.  When I look bac=
k at the moment, it seems crystal clear that we were at the edge of an aest=
hetic and philosophical ocean turn in how people put ideas together in the =
era of hyper media. Since that time, simple things like wireless networks, =
the ubiquity of the Ipod, global media events like 9/11 or the SARS virus, =
have all brought home how prescient his thought was. The world knows Baudri=
llard as the philosopher who gave us a cautionary tale about simulation, an=
d if the events of today =E2=80=93 the war in Iraq, the economics of global=
ization, Katrina=E2=80=99s destruction of New Orleans =E2=80=93 have told u=
s that in no uncertain terms, we live in a world with a more and more tenuo=
us grasp of the =E2=80=9Creality=E2=80=9D underpinning the myths of the pre=
sent day. In a world where bleak man made landscapes and the psychological =
effects of technological, social and environmental developments cannot be d=
enied, his words were a beacon of how we can reason through the myriad ways=
 that we humans have displaced the natural world. For me as a just graduati=
ng student in the early mid 90=E2=80=99s, Baudrillard seemed like a figure =
who cut through the haze of post-everything American cultural malaise. I st=
udied French literature at a time when it seemed that America was enthralle=
d by the end of the Cold War =E2=80=93 my studies were populated with peopl=
e like Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari, Lyotard, Baudrillard, Althusse=
r, Lacan, bounded by Badiou. Kristeva, Cixous, Irigaray, Wittig=E2=80=A6 Th=
e list goes on but you get the point: these figures are part of a pantheon =
where, perhaps, one of the common themes is a simple cry for new ways to pe=
rceive how the mass media-landscape inadvertently invades and splinters the=
 private mind of the individual.=20
What Baudrillard did for me was make the world safe for doubt: doubt about =
the intentions of governments, corporations, ideologies, and yes, people. L=
ike J.G. Ballard or Bruce Sterling, his work hovered between descriptions o=
f the world in present tense and the strange and uncanny networks that hold=
 together =E2=80=9Cthe real.=E2=80=9D For him, like the 'simulacrum' follow=
ing DeBord's 'spectacle' where 'revolution' became synonymous with hypercon=
sumerism and something everyone did against the name of 'freedom,' but that=
=E2=80=99s freedom of choice, of course. I don't mean to say anything here,=
 I wonder about the doubting that once swayed the world,
Today, I wrote this piece traveling on a flight between Tokyo and Istanbul,=
 and as I sit here and use a wireless network in the coffee lounge of the H=
otel Buyuk Londra, I re-read him as doubting everything =E2=80=93 it=E2=80=
=99s as if Baudrillard says never model a thought about  anything unless yo=
u can say it to yourself.  The thought lingers, and links to a meta critiqu=
e: it posits modern thought as withdrawn, proffered as kind of a peripheral=
 speech. At the birth of the 21st century, at the birth of the new New Worl=
d, of suicide bombers, insane Presidents, multi-media equipped private armi=
es and fundamentalist militas, his words bear reviewing: Baudrillard =E2=80=
=93 a voice that says the seductions of reality are what we now hold dear.W=
e speak the world.  Reform, remix, re-engineer the consent of the Western w=
orld. We need this analysis more than ever. Vietnam is now long gone. Flip =
the script and think: for us children of the late 20th century, memory is a=
 scarce resource. In the rear view mirror - May 68 was almost forty years a=
go and most of us young people have never thought of burning monks, Charima=
n Mao, Stalin, or the origins of half of today=E2=80=99s problems. I think =
back to an almost innocent moment in the mid 1990=E2=80=99s when Baudrillar=
d with a gold suit, made people remember that the chance processes of the w=
orld are what give us joy. With a simple flourish, I think that he set the =
tone for many young artists, writers, and musicians, to remember a simple t=
hing: that another world is possible.

Tokyo/Istanbul 3/15/07







------------------------------


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