Cool Memories II: 1987 - 1990

Cool Memories #1987-1990

by Jean Baudrillard

This is the third in a series of personal records in hyper-reality from France's provocative philosopher of postmodernity,

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory

104 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Jean Baudrillard was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet, with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as his formulation of concepts such as hyperreality. Baudrillard wrote about diverse subjects, including consumerism, critique of economy, social history, aesthetics, Western foreign policy, and popular culture. Among his most well-known works are Seduction (1978), Simulacra and Simulation (1981), America (1986), and The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991). His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and specifically post-structuralism. Nevertheless, Baudrillard had also opposed post-structuralism, and had distanced himself from postmodernism.

Reviews

[Omar Muñoz Cremers]

Verrassende vondst in een hele leuke boekwinkel in Kraków. Het tweede deel met Baudrillards verzameling observaties, reisindrukken, provocaties en andersoortige mijmeringen uit de periode 1987 - 1990. Baudrillard lijkt hier vaak een intellectuele edgelord, die al lang voor social media bezig was met de ontwikkeling van shitposting. Met zijn gebruikelijke afstandelijkheid en sardonische humor observeert hij meewarig politiek, kunst en allerlei sociale fenomenen (soms zelfs een film, Sex, Lies and Videotape.) Niet vies van ongegeneerd Frans seksisme waar je nu niet meer mee weg zou komen, soms niet te volgen en dan opeens hilarisch grappig en regelmatig gewoon profetisch (meneer zat als sciencefictionlezer al lang en breed te speculeren over AI in de tijd van de fax.) Peak Baudrillard is wel: "At Disneyworld in Florida they are building a giant mock-up of Hollywood, with the boulevards, studio's, etc. One more spiral in the simulacrum. One day they will rebuild Disneyland at Disneyworld." Prachtige voorkant met een schilderij van David Hockney, tres cool.

[Tatyana · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Two precious moments, two precious illusions: in the vague anticipation of a woman, of possessing her - the illusion of pleasure - and in the freshly felt resentment at her loss, when you are still under the spell, in the illusion of loss.
Between the two, you get the feeling nothing happens."

"The perfect crime, the only one, is suicide. Because it is unique and final, whereas murder has to be repeated endlessly. Because suicide achieves the ideal confusion of executioner and victim."

"Only from time to time does thought fall suddenly in love with the real world and, from time to time, the real world returns its feelings. Most of the time, thought detaches itself from reality in order to exist and distances itself to be at its finest."

"In a system as perfect as this, you only have to be deprived of breakfast to become unpredictable."

"[Writing is] a snapshot of something which is disappearing. For everything one writes
about is disappearing - that’s the only compelling reason to write about it."

"A painter exactly repaints a particular Picasso, a Matisse or a Velazquez. He signs this work, which is not a copy, finds a gallery to exhibit it and people to buy it. He may even merely sign the photo of a famous work.
Why is it not possible to republish “Sein und Zeit” or “Ia Chartreuse de Parme” under my own name ? Why is what is possible in painting, not possible in literature (and in music and architecture) ?"

"In writing, the most enthralling moment is that of condensation, ellipsis, rarefaction. Building up increasingly dense nuclei around which light is disoriented, and thought too, since it loses the sense of its origin."

"How a woman can once again become violently desirable after you have broken up remains a mystery. Unless it is from a desire to immortalize the break-up."

[Troy · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be the historian of snows, the theorist of glaciation, the exegete of viruses, the oceanographer of ennui. Thinking becomes a meteorological precipitation of cerebral particles: rain and snow at the heart of the depression.

[Wenshu · Rating 5 out of 5]

love it.

[Gulliver's Bad Trip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Há quatro volumes disso mas infelizmente só traduziram á partir do segundo. De qualquer maneira já é difícil encontrar essas 3 traduções quanto mais outras do Baudrillard. Acho que se poderia lê-los cada um em uma estação do ano mas não creio que durariam tanto assim já que todos são curtos e cheios de breves comentários 'multidisciplinares' sobre as respectivas épocas e regiões do mundo pelo qual ele passou nas suas 'cabotinagens' acadêmicas. Não tenho mais nada à declarar além de que o autor deveria ter lido Clastres também pra diferenciar os índios de sociedades propriamente primitivas, como os do Brasil, daquelas civilizações bárbaras (esse sendo o real sentido da palavra 'primitivo' empregada por ele) nos Andes e na meso-américa... E acho que ele gostava do Cronenberg.

[Joel Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

cool memories bro