Customer Reviews

Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond (Key Contemporary Thinkers)

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This is a dense book, not for casual reading. Presumably the reader already knows something about Baudrillard or wants to learn about him and the general point of view he represents, viz. post-structuralism. The book doesn't function well as an introduction to either Baudrillard or post-structuralism. Considerable background in these subjects is assumed by the author who makes few concessions to the unintiated. To readers more familiar with French social theory, Kellner's commentary is rewarding, particularly the final summing-up chapter, which contextualizes persuasively the arc of Baudrillard's intellectual career. Marxism enters as the stubborn persistense of a socio- material realm increasingly ignored in that arc and to its detriment. On balance, I believe Kellner treats the sometimes maddening hyperbole in a fair-minded manner, though a more concrete exposition of the promising ideas surrounding `sign exchange' would better illustrate Baudrillard's early appeal which does seem to suffer at book's end. This is not a book for the unprepared.

Kellner is highly critical of Baudrillard's turn from Marxist/political solutions to a kind of techno-nihilism but the book is a great review and analysis of Baudrillard's work; it is much easier to read this book with many passages from Baudrillard's own writings with Kellner's critical but complete commentaries than to read some of the horribly translated works of Baudrillard out there. Baudrillard read's more like a sci-fi dystopian at times-his theory of the code and his use of the term Matrix (pre-movie) is very interesting stuff. This is a great introduction to a cutting edge philosophy that provocatively analyzes our current capitalistic and media saturated society.