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From: Ian Robert Douglas <I.R.Douglas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 16:43:14 +0000
Douglas Kellner wrote:
>I think that the discussion of Baudrillard's FORGET FOUCAULT so far has
>missed why JB thinks we can forget MF .. once we enter the era of
simulations
>proper, postmodernity, we are propelled beyond modernity and thus beyond
>the world of Foucault. Thus, JB affirms that MF has very nicely
described
>the world of modern power but these forms of power are volatized in the
>worlds of simulation.
I think that this is right, of course. The serious point is that JB
takes a different reading of the contemporary moment, but that doesn't
necessarily translate as easily into the notion of 'forgetting'. I think
throughout the essay 'FF', one can feel the debts JB has to Nietzsche's
essay on the uses and disadvantages of history for life. JB (I would
suggest) knows full well that his whole approach to the contemporary is
unimaginable without Foucault. So again, its not so much 'forgetting',
as forgetting is in some sense 'building on'/transcending.
I guess that doesn't clarify much, but it seems to be that the use of
the word 'forget' is in this instance, very careful.
ian.r.d.
"Violence on television only affects children whose
parents act like television personalities."