Two Essays

Bibliographic Data

ID4108676
AuthorsJean Baudrillard (corresponding author)
Year1991
Volume18
IssuePart 3
Pages309-320
Publication date1991-11-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Fiction Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0091-7729 • E-ISSN: 2327-6207
PublisherUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/sfs.18.3.309
OpenAlexW4410185222
LanguageEN
Citations received6

In the hyperreal order of simulations, which is governed by informatic and cybernetic control systems, reality is increasingly determined by models (rather than the reverse). The distance deparating the real (fact) and the imaginary (fiction) collapses, and with it the discursive space traditionally used by utopias and classical SF. SF can no longer supply an imaginary model of the real because the latter, itself, is the product of models. SF is now called upon to portray this breakdown of the distance between fiction and fact. (ICR) Ballard's Crash inverts the traditional view of technology as a functional extension of the body. The body and technology mingle (both literally and metaphorically) in a generalized psychology-free symbolization of violence and erotic mutilation exemplified by the auto (auto-) accident. Organic and inorganic vehicles interpenetrate, creating a locus of initiatory power and a path of ritualization for mass-mediated objects. Crash thus represents SF as virtual hyperreality where the dynamics of implosion replace those of extrapolation. (ICR

Cultural Studies and Postmodernism · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Philosophy · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction

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