Man vs Environment in Juan Rulfos Short Stories - Book Report/Review Example

Hyperreality This paper encompasses a discussion of hyperreality. Hyperreality is a philosophy first made popular by Jean Baudrillard, Daniel Boorstin. It is important not to confuse Hyperreality with the tenets of surrealism. Hyperreality is a concept in concept in semiotics and postmodern philosophy that requires a little knowledge about the subject to truly understand. In order to continue the discussion on hyperreality it is important to first understand the concept and tenets of reality. According to the Oxford English Dictionary reality can be defined as something being real and having an actual existence" and supplements this with a definition of real as "having objective existence," and finally to exist as having "place in the domain of reality." (Ozford English Dictionary, 1989) There are other definitions of the term that include "The simulation of something which never really existed." (Baudrillard) "The authentic fake." (Eco). These definitions are provided from hyperreality philosophers and can be compared with the definition of reality to clearly observe the divergence into hyperreality. As a result, a disparity as to what reality is surfaces. This is because the conventional and somewhat predictable definitions of reality "represent a larger problem in the attempt to locate the real on the most basic level, for they are wholly circular, a set of signifiers reflecting back at each other lacking the grounding necessary to render meaning. " (Delueze, 1990 p286) Virilio points out that "this problem is not unique to the word 'reality,' indeed almost all words and signs are only able to refer back towards the internal exchange of other signs in order to produce a theoretical anchor." p 981991) The slippage of reality, its "elusiveness encountered even in a basic search for a definition, is an element of the hyperreal - a condition in which the distinction between the 'real' and the imaginary implodes" p 818 Nealon, 1998) Taking all of this into account about reality and the definitions and the concepts that encompass it is significant to keep in mind that there is not a standing or an and unchanging definition of hyperreality. There are many different interpretations employed by theorists vary on some of the most essential terms. In reality, it is significant to understand that a common understanding of hyperreality does exist although it changes a little from theorist to theorist. A general understanding of hyperreality is important for it is an issue at the crux of several critical debates within the study of media including semiotics, objects and space, the spectacle, performativity, the examination of mass media, Platonism, resistance, and the structure of reality. "(Nealon, p 7311998) Hyperrealism can be thought of as an indicator of postmodern culture. Hyperreality does not "exist" or "not exist." It simply is a way of describing the information to which the consciousness is subject. (Baudrillard,)Almost all of the characteristics of hyperreality can be thought of as "reality by proxy." Baudrillard in particular suggests that the world we live in has been replaced by a copy world, were we seek simulated stimuli and nothing more. Baudrillard borrows the example of a society whose cartographers create a map so detailed that it covers the very things it was designed to represent. When the empire declines, the map fades into the landscape and there is neither the representation or the real remaining - just the hyperreal. Baudrillard's idea of hyperreality was heavily influenced by phenomenology, semiotics, and Marshall McLuhan. Consumer objects have a sign exchange value, which means that they indicate something about the owner in the context of a social system (see Baudrillard). For example, a king who wears a crown uses the crown as a sign to indicate that he is king. (Debord 1978) Essentially, sign exchange values have no inherent meaning or value beyond what is agreed upon. As sign exchange values become more numerous, interaction becomes increasingly based upon things with no inherent meaning. Thus, reality becomes less and less important, as sign exchange takes precedence. (Debord, p '1981978) Taking a look back to the bebinning of hyperreality provides some clues for a better understanding of it. Consumer objects have a sign exchange value, which means that they indicate something about the owner in the context of a social system (see Baudrillard). For example, a king who wears a crown uses the crown as a sign to indicate that he is king. Fundamentally, sign exchange values have no inherent meaning or value beyond what is agreed upon. As sign exchange values become more numerous, interaction becomes increasingly based upon things with no inherent meaning. Thus, reality becomes less and less important, as sign exchange takes precedence. (Debord, 1978) If grains of sand are dropped one by one onto a table, at some arbitrary moment the grains become a heap of sand. Similarly, at some arbitrary point as sign exchange becomes more complex, reality shifts into hyperreality Hyperreality is significant as a paradigm to explain the American cultural condition. Consumerism, because of its reliance on sign exchange value (e.g. brand X makes you cool, car Y means you're rich), is the contributing factor in creating hyperreality. Hyperreality tricks the consciousness into detaching from any real emotional engagement, instead opting for artificial simulation, and endless reproductions of fundamentally empty appearance. Interacting in a hyperreal place like a Las Vegas casino gives the subject the impression that he is walking through a fantasy world where everyone is playing along. The decor is not authentic, everything is a copy, and the whole thing feels like a dream. What is not a dream, of course, is that the casino takes your money, which you are more apt to give them when your consciousness does not really understand what is going on. In other words, although you may intellectually understand what happens at a casino, your consciousness thinks that gambling money in the casino is part of the "not real" world' It is in the interest of the decorators to emphasise that everything is fake, to make the entire experience seem fake. Note: Many postmodern philosophers, including Baudrillard, do not talk about hyperreal in terms of a subject/object split. In order to further understand the tenets and philosophy of hyperreality it is helpful to examine some examples of it. Examples of hyperreality include Examples of Hyperreality includes things in everyday life like a sports drink of a lover that does not actually exist like tropical icy energy berry. Another example that clearly illustrates the concept of hyperreality is an artificial or plastic Christmas tree that looks better than a real Christmas tree ever could. The media is notorious for showing advertisements in magazines that show a model in the photo but the photo has been "touched up" or even created by a computer. Almost all video games are classic examples of hyperreality and even a well-manicured garden such as the ones in Las Vegas or at Disney qualify as hyperreal. Pornography in many instances is also considered hyperreal especially when the photographs have been touch up and other things have been done to make the real look hyperreal. In conclusion it can be said that The role of resistance in relation to hyperreality differs greatly among theorists. Some thinkers are fairly optimistic, such as Marshall McLuhan's portrayal of media technologies as a generally benign force, expanding and evolving toward a society with great communicative potential. This interpretation directly clashes with Baudrillard, who sees the mass media as inherently non-communicative, a quality that allows them to exert social control over mass populations. In his earlier work Baudrillard's proposal for resistance is radical but clear: obliterate the transmitters, destroy the world of media technologies through revolutionary action and resume normal face-to-face conversation (1981: p. 170). Yet in his later work, Baudrillard borders more on nihilism, with the closest articulation of resistance being his advocacy of mass indifference to simulacra (IL 1994: 60-61). Eco is far more hopeful about the possibilities for resistance. Eco, in a move theoretically similar to Enzensberger, advocates what he calls the guerrilla solution, modeled off the metaphor of guerrilla resistance; he claims that revolutionaries and critical theorists can use the grassroots television programming to spread their subversive message (142-143). My own performance proposed a strategy of resistance adopted from the work of Judith Butler, to reverse certain performative signs in a subversive manner around the body so as to expose, reveal, and de-familiarize specific media technologies- to dress in drag in order to denaturalize simulated norms of sex and gender. The conceptual use of hyperreality is consistent enough within the literature to give space for a common working definition for media theory, but the contrasting term 'reality' is used in far too many divergent ways to arrive at a unified understanding. However, it may be helpful for readers to conclude this article with a few brief theories of reality as a starting point for further study. For Lacan, the term real is composed in opposition to that which is encompassed by the symbolic and the imaginary (see symbolic, real, imaginary). The real is what eludes representation, what cannot be either symbolized (in terms of Saussure's notion of signifiers) or imagined and perceived within the images of the conscious and unconscious (Sheridan 1978: p. 280). Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (1983) understand desire to be based upon the lack of the object, yet nonetheless a productive force that renders into reality the fantasy of that object. 'Reality' is thus nothing more than a "group fantasy" reified by 'desiring machines, for "desire produces reality, or stated another way, desiring-production is one and the same thing as social production" (p. 30). For a definition of reality in contrast to hyperreality, Baudrillard represents many of the hyperrealists with his claim that the real is "fictional," a phantasy generated by "doubling the signs of an unlocatable reality" (1994: p. 81). Baudrillard concludes on reality that it is nothing more than a fairy tale, it is "now impossible to isolate the process of the real, or to prove the real" (1994: p. 21). References Baudrillard, Jean. The Illusion of the End. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994. Debord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle. Detroit: Black and Red, 1977. Delueze, Guilles. The Logic of Sense. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990. pp. 253-265. Eco, Umberto. Travels in Hyperreality. Sand Diego and New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1983. Nealon, Jeffrey T. Alterity Politics: Ethics and Performative Subjectivity. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998. Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd Edition online, 1989. Virilio, Paul. The Lost Dimension. New York: Semiotext(e) Publishers, 1991. Read More