In this, his most important collection of essays since Le systeme des objets, Jean Baudrillard contemplates Western culture “after the orgy”—the orgy, that is, of the revolutions of the 1960s. The sexual revolution has led, he argues, not to sexual liberation but to a reign of transvestism, to a confusion of the categories of man and woman—to the “androgenous and Frankenstein appeal of a Michael Jackson.” The revolution in art has led to a “transaesthetic realm of indifference.” The cybernetic revolution has blurred the distinction between man and machine, while the political revolution has led to a ‘transpolitics’ that merely simulates old political forms. Such are the points of Baudrillard’s compass as he steers his way through the mental landscape of this febrile fin de siecle.
Language
English
Pages
174
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Verso
Release
May 17, 1993
ISBN
0860915883
ISBN 13
9780860915881
The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena
In this, his most important collection of essays since Le systeme des objets, Jean Baudrillard contemplates Western culture “after the orgy”—the orgy, that is, of the revolutions of the 1960s. The sexual revolution has led, he argues, not to sexual liberation but to a reign of transvestism, to a confusion of the categories of man and woman—to the “androgenous and Frankenstein appeal of a Michael Jackson.” The revolution in art has led to a “transaesthetic realm of indifference.” The cybernetic revolution has blurred the distinction between man and machine, while the political revolution has led to a ‘transpolitics’ that merely simulates old political forms. Such are the points of Baudrillard’s compass as he steers his way through the mental landscape of this febrile fin de siecle.