American Psycho, Baudrillard and the Postmodern Condition
Вставка
- Опубліковано 27 тра 2018
- Patreon: / cuck
Twitter: / philosophycuck
I had to do a voice-over in the video when I said "Simulacra and Simulation" and it sounds strange and out-of-place, but actually fits with the theme because it highlights the unreality of what you're watching.
Also I goddamn said that Bateman records a voice message on Allen's phone, when it was clearly a tape recorder. I bet people will point that out in the comments.
Recommended introductory reading on Baudrillard:
"Jean Baudrillard" by Douglas Kellner in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - plato.stanford.edu/entries/ba...
"Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond" by Douglas Kellner - pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/...
I quoted Baudrillard from
"The System of Objects" page 15 - monoskop.org/images/2/28/Baud...
"America" pages 32-33 in the pdf - monoskop.org/images/a/ac/Baud...
![Rick Roderick on Baudrillard - Fatal Strategies [full length]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2U9WMftV40c/mqdefault.jpg)
Impressive. Very nice.
Let's see Paul Allen's post-modern philosophical film analysis
he hasn't come back from London yet !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The subtle astute Marxist remark on character development. Oh my god. He even has a Hegelian footnote.
This made my day 😂
Laughed out loud
@@itkojecockot I thought he was returning some videotapes
No annoying sounds, no music, no ads. I love the peaceful side of UA-cam.
eigenchris vibes
I've had youtube red for years. I forgot ads were on till a friend showed me on his phone. If you live in youtube i recommend.
... ads are on
walks on alone as the exposing of people's real sides is why i do not lose any sleep in ditching people from my life.
@@camimahieu Not enabled by Jonas Ceika.
So, let's see:
Christian Bale uses Tom Cruise as inspiration for his performance as Patrick Bateman.
Patrick Bateman has an elevator encounter with Tom Cruise in the novel.
In the novel Bateman is at one point called Patrick "Batman."
Christian Bale plays Batman in Batman Begins where he bangs Catie Holmes, one of Cruise's ex-wives.
Another of Cruise's ex-wives, Nicole Kidman, is banged by Batman in Batman Forever.
What does it MEAN...
Objects: 1. Subject: Error not found
Christian bale is a character actor. If he based his character of Tom cruise. That dude was living as Tom cruise, for God's sake he starved himself because of a typo in a script. Great performance nonetheless.
sharp analysis lol
These are the kind of layered "coincidences" you can find if you watch most of David Lynch's catalog...
It means drink less coffee after midnight :P
Saw this video at a Baudrillard museum exhibit in Shanghai! Congrats
Surprised react
lol wtf China
The whole fucking country is a Baudrillard exhibit you don't need a museum.
@@loveulez it's the very irony of the situation that transcends reality and elevates its very existence into the hyperreal. I say that the fact that the museum is not needed that makes it necessary, for its emptiness echoes the greater emptiness of actual meaning.
@@loveulez Aren't you talking about the United States?
I like how the subtitles keep finding creative and unique ways of spelling Baudrillard.
Baudry Ah
One of the best things in the book that doesn't really translate into the movie is how every single time a character appears, Patrick goes through an exhaustive list of every single clothing item they're wearing and what brand it's from. Beyond these clothings lists, there's almost nothing in the book about how any of the characters actually look.
Except all those "hardbodies- blonde, big tits"
My favorite part is the fact that no one even notices that "acquisitions" is spelled wrong on the business cards- it's not important.
Really they don't care what everyone's doing, they don't even care about anything, not even themselves. This movie is specifically about loss of meaning, even the things that Should be meaningful. even Bateman slaughtering people, means nothing. that nothing is real to them. even when Bateman tries to be meaningful by rebeling, by killing, and confessing to his lawyer, he is helpless, stuck in a reality that won't even give him the decency of a shared reality. Because they don't share the same reality. It's all lies spun not only by him, but his lawyer, his coworkers, and all around him. as much as this story is about loss of individual identity, it is also about the loss of collective identity as well. That when everyone is the same, we are no longer collective, because a collective denotes many. When we become rigidly the same, we no longer lose individual identity, but a collective as well.
@@ethanstump I think what you're saying in the last bit there is that a society or collective needs to have diversity or uniqueness of persons.
@@dasein9980my intention of that part was talking about how overly enforcing orthodoxy usually kills any sort of idea of change, which usually leads to the movements stagnation, and then leads to either a spin off group, or a disbandment. more a diversity of opinions really. but yeah, diversity of persons is just as important.
"t's not important."
*Yet, you notices something important to you. A value of subjectivity.*
Or that they're both Vice President and don't have their own number.
Christian Bale's observation of Tom Cruise gave me chills. "An INTENSE friendliness with nothing behind the eyes." THOSE are the fucking psychos for SURE!
Go watch that interview...tom cruise admits getting whole of the oxygen of a guy next to him so that he coule have more himself so the guy fell asleep....and he was laughing...that is dangerous
that explains CEO as well....literally nothing behind the eyes
When did he say this?
Sometimes you just don't want to connect
Just a performance. What about Letterman. Both authentic performers. Or maybe thats just our newly enlightened disposition. Our self organizing ( simulations) to adapt to simulations. Object to object. Inauthentically what Satre calls bad faith. Object to object wise. Structurelism. Is this why narratives and trends are so desirable. Subjective necromancing.
I find it interesting how often filmmakers/authors use modern and postmodern design objects to signify psychopaths or villains. You know a bad guy usually by his impeccable taste for designer furniture. Flemming even named Goldfinger after the modernist architect of the same name.
Good point, Terminator loved a good bidet. Joker really had a spreed for supper on that love couch that looked like a taxi. Some people think Sauron and Thanos had impeccable taste I'm sure.
@@dmay3391 Sauron really went against the grain of contemporary design philosophy in middle earth; he took the concept of idealized marble medieval architecture and turned it on his head, creating a vast, open landscape of volcanic ash, and giant structures that resembled the harsh environment while blending in with them. I think he used the architecture as a metaphor for the oppressed people he represented, the desolate reservation the orcs are relegated to because of the color of their skin. He was really misunderstood in his time.
As a villain they are perfectly in tune with the system that controls us, in charge, dominating it and their victims
like Humbert Humbert's "fancy prose style"
@@BillOrrickMusic excellent observation, you just blew my mind lol
im leaving, ive assessed the situation and uh, im going.
Gotta return some video tapes, eh?
@@freddybeer yes *Video Tapes*
You're not terribly important to me
For those who are interested. Baudrillard was a pupil of Henri Lefebvre and was heavily inspired by his teacher. Most important work by Lefebvre was "Critique of Everyday Life" (1947) which btw also inspired the Situationists.
Thanks. Both Lefebvre and the Situationists remained more directly political which is a plus.
This was awesome.
Hyperreality is taken to the extreme today. Where technology is our true reality and our lives are support structures there to facilitate our cyber lifestyle.
Joseph Mikolash
Nietzsche warned of the Hyperreality in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. “The Last Man” was what Nietzsche predicted about about Man’s Decline.
From the Academy of Ideas:
The Last Man is the individual who specializes not in creation, but in consumption. In the midst of satiating base pleasures, he claims to have “discovered happiness” by virtue of the fact that he lives in the most technologically advanced and materially luxurious era in human history.
But this self-infatuation of the Last Man conceals an underlying resentment, and desire for revenge. On some level, the Last Man knows that despite his pleasures and comforts, he is empty and miserable. With no aspiration and no meaningful goals to pursue, he has nothing he can use to justify the pain and struggle needed to overcome himself and transform himself into something better. He is stagnant in his nest of comfort, and miserable because of it. This misery does not render him inactive, but on the contrary, it compels him to seek victims in the world. He cannot bear to see those who are flourishing and embodying higher values, and so he innocuously supports the complete de-individualization of every person in the name of equality. The Last Man’s utopia is one in which total equality is maintained not from without, by an oppressive ruling class, but from within, through the “evil-eye” of envy and ridicule.
“No herdsman and one herd. Everyone wants the same thing, everyone is the same: whoever thinks otherwise goes voluntarily into the madhouse.” (Thus Spake Zarathustra)
*NO* ! ! ! ! It's NOT! ! ! ! That's why everyone has gone bibbeldy these days, faces glued to little glowing devices...
Turn the shit off & go out & live, for cryin' out loud!
While that's statistically true in some sense, the declaration itself is imprecise both in scale and context.
Is that an admission of what's happening right now, or a statement of what ought to be? How many people are actually doing it? What does 'cyber lifestyle' mean? What activities does it distinguish itself with, from 'real' life?
Bruh i like this interpretation
@Stale Bagelz Existential crisis maybe?
You made me want to watch the movie again. You're doing a great job explaining somewhat complicated philosophical ideas.
The analysis of the meaning of Reagan with regards to the Actor/President dichotomy is particularly interesting with regards to Trump as President/Reality TV Star. The move from Actor to Actor acting as President to Actor, acting as Real Person, acting as President has some implications which should be analysed.
Also the similarities/differences between MacLuhan's analysis of the Kennedy/Nixon debates with regards to Radio versus Television reception and the similarities/differences between Obama and Trump's use of social media. Also the differences between Obama and McCain versus Clinton and Trump.
Obama had a slick, designed media campaign which presented itself as 'real' to a populace who received it as such. McCain's capaign moved along traditional axes, and suffered as a result of not being engaging. Clinton's campaign developed and extrapolated Obama's but was not so warmly received by a public who were able to identify the simulacra. Whilst Trump's campaign was not so reliant on reality, embraced a 'post-truth' society and is a pretty fitting of what Baudrillard might today call Hyperreality.
I think you are overstating the importance of social media, especially with regard to Obama v. McCain, it wasnt that important.
Trump represents the perfect culmination of the idea of Amerixa.
Trump is the realest president in the last 50 years. He uses tricks that all other presidents used of course. However, his behaviour is aligned with his actions and he was extremely rich prior to joining politics so one reason less to act fake. Trump is not only a "reality TV star", it is dishonest to present him in that way. I think many postmodern philosophers invent fake language and unscientific theories that can't be refuted, similar to popular psychology.
Reminds me of the line from Fight Club: Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy.
Plus the Dems sandbagged Bernie.
I think I need to buy some Ikea stuff. Apparently my house is a mixture of fascism and patriarchy
All power to IKEA, our liberator.
Make your own furniture then. Sieze the means of your own house.
You have nothing to loose but your chairs.
But the collapse of my house is inevitable due to inherent flaws in the structure.
+Torus2112 The contradiction of gravity pulling my house down by its own weight and the walls keeping it from falling means that its destruction is inevitable!
The ad before this video was for a Barbie cake decorator.
Ad's are catered to the search results for any particular user. You saying your browsing history is the same as people that buy Barbie cake decorators.
@@dmay3391 I think you missed the joke buddy.
The book was pretty hard to read for me. The descriptions of 80s products and fashionware just go on and on, it's maddening.
that's exactly what ellis wanted you to feel. his madness.
That's what good art does. He uses the descriptions to overwhelm you with the meaningless of it. To create that feeling of boredom and frustration that he sees in the culture around him.
I like the use of Phil Collins as this guy's music taste.
You think Ellis is too obsessive? Wait until you read Madame Bovary or In Search Of Lost Time.
Sometimes I believe Ellis is exposing the dark side of the whole phenomenological obsessiveness present in both Proust and Flaubert's works.
I.N.F. L.X. True... But i didnt see much connection, its still not so meta. Reminds me more of the 60s Realist Experimentalists
Has anyone pointed out the similarities between the commodity listing in American Psycho and Ready Player One? Because now I notice it, it's pretty uncanny.
The personality-less main character and banal existence in a world full of meaningless, disposable consumer objects. The comment on hyperreality, the lack of distinction between the Real and the Virtual...there's a lot there to examine I think!
Derlaid i was thinking more about our current media. films are rarely stories about people, they are mythologies, commercials, extremelly self referencial, click bait.
even many romantic comedies are rarely about Real romantic stories, the characters are archtypes, even presenting ones that only exist in romantic comedies.
many times events are more about our expectation than the event itself.
in the case of RP1, what i read is the book is not a comment on this situation, but rather the condition itself. this becomes clear, from what i read second handly, in the author's second book where gamers save the world again with all the nostalgia involved and again with carachters being merely archtypes.
oh absolutely, the book isn't self-aware of its spectacle, but I see the parallels between the two books nonetheless.
maybe instead of "archetypes" a better word would be "signs"
Derlaid an important feature of RP0 is that the characters fight for the Virtual world instead of the Real world. one of the main criticisms of the film, from what i have read.
I have to return some videotapes
I love it when people say this in the comments, it's so funny and original.
@@liamdhardy Liam, you're not terribly important to me
some videotapes
@@vahdettinsefali underrated two times joke
Oh wow thanks to you Ive read both American Psycho (in 14 days) and like half of Simulacra (in 1 month), both of them absolutely unbearable and brilliant.
I gotta say Im just so glad to have found your channel - you are like the one friend whom Ive always wanted to have, the one who "gets" it and has good books to recommend. Keep on going.
This video is certainly one of my favorites in this channel! I always thought of the objects in American Psycho but never focused on them in that specific approach, in which allows to show us how determining these objects actually are.
I love Bret Easton Ellis's book. It's almost unbearable at times, but that just adds to the horror.
Been in my recommended for weeks and I'm glad I finally gave it a shot. You do a really good job with the given material. I usually brush off channels like this one b/c I feel they don't handle their source material well.
9:45 I'm so glad this is being recognized. I've seen Cruise be like this in films too; it was so pronounced in some scenes that I'm surprised they made it to the screen that way. I find it quite unsettling, especially in real life encounters.
This seems to be a pretty universal reaction to Tom Cruise lol
I was just surprised Bale would say something on the matter.
He's a Scientologist what do you expect
I wrote about this film in my Freshman Existentialism writing seminar. It was probably one of the first ever existentialist discussions of the film (though I'm sure there was already plenty about the book). It wasn't anything special, but the film was still in theaters when I wrote it, so it was very early.
I would like to thank you for these great videos you ve been uploading. It is clear how much love you put into your content
Thank you for making this video, it's really well made, and i can see that you poured your heart into it. Keep up the good work!
I am a huge fan of Baudrillard and find his work absolutely fascinating. This video was awesome to watch and I only wish it was longer!
Ditto
I love your content. You never disappoint!
This channel is great. Thanks for putting this video eassays out there
first video of yours I've watched, I didn't expect much going in, but was honestly surprised at how well it was made. keep it up, please.
God this video is such a masterpiece, come back to watch this one every few months
Your videos are a breath of fresh air.
Wow, that's the best explanation I've found for these topics. So quick and concise. Amazingly well done, thank you!
Amazing work! Enjoyed it and I like that you point to philosophers and further reading.
I just saw American Psycho for the first time (a decision inspired by this video, by the way), and yeah, this analysis is spot on. I think the way you described Bateman could be said about everyone else as well. Charming smiles, no actual self.
Woah! This opened me up to a bunch of whole new concepts and ideas, not the basic ones I could have formulated in my head. My mind is blown.
How has this only been recommended to me now!? Two years after upload and 10 years since I had to study Baudrillard. Great video, subscribed
This video was so interesting, I wish it had been an hour long.
Bravo!
Your best video essay so far. Keep up the great analyses.
Wanders Gion Agreed
i love this channel
William M. such a post modern comment
artistic choice of words
Why is it called 'cuck' philosophy? I feel like there's some level of subversive irony that's eluding me....
@@ludwigwittgenduck3282 here here.
Very impressive video! I watched this recently in Shanghai at Baudrillard's exhibition in Power Station of Art. The analysis is simple but efficient. Thanks for making it!
I keep rewatching this video, amazing work man
Great analysis man. I had a thesis on Cultural logic of late Capitalism. Your analysis really helped me to put together pastiche and simulacra and to find key differences between Jameson's and Baudrillard's approaches.
If you liked American Psych you should read Don DeLillo’s debut novel Americana.
Published 20 years earlier it’s way ahead of its time. He writes about a character, that fits perfectly into the Reagan era yuppie mould, slowly losing any sense of personality deeper than surface appearance. A prophetic work on hypermediation and the centrality of sign-value in postmodern culture.
I am so lucky you don't have alot of videos, otherwise I wouldn't be able to study today.
I love your videos man, easy to follow and interesting!
Great work as usual. Hope to see more videos soon.
The most difficult part of reading "American Psycho" was the chapter when he runs through all of these brand names. I'd not heard of most of them before. It reminded me of the first time that I read "Finnegans Wake."
As a person who has Asperger's, I have consistently found it difficult to fit in, especially in the workplace. The more I think about it, the more I have concluded that maybe copying the behaviors of Patrick Bateman might be a good idea.
That's not to say that killing is something to do. Rather, it might be best to play along with the charade. Go along with the illusion. Give the delusional whose identity is confined to the corporate organizational chart positions what they want: A mirror.
People like this need constant validation. This is why they do not like people who have gaps in employment during interviews. It shows that the interviewee does not play the game, which does not validate their playing of the game. The very existence of a person like me, with these gaps, threatens their delicate illusion.
It drives their fear to the point that they will say horrible things, such as, *_"Ah, I see that you have a few years of not working. What did you do during that time? Kick back, relax and take it easy?"_* That is the verbal embodiment of their internal fear, which is all that they truly have inside.
Is it possible to compartmentalize it all, so that I could keep my internal self, which is substantial only to me, in a safe place, while allowing an external shell of hollow platitudes in place? The advice of "just be yourself" has turned out to be THE absolute worst idea ever. Tell someone at work about your hobbies, interests, or personal life, and you're effectively giving them ammunition to use against you whenever they wish.
It's a dirty game. My options are to either play it or starve to death.
Yes, we are at the whims of narcissistic neurotypicals who run the system.
@@dasein9980 Was this an attempt to be anti-current-economic system?
DrumWild, yes.
This is exactly what I feel Andrew Yang is trying to address (with the risk of sounding like a bot).
Almost all interactions require you to 'play it'. It's probably only when you're alone can you 'be yourself'.
I already loved American Psycho, but this greatly increased my appreciation of it. I'd love more videos about movies.
I liked this a lot, thanks for putting so much effort into your vids man
My favorit vid of yours. Absolutely love your channel mate.
Simulacra and Simulation?
This is the exact book that Neo stores his small CD's of spyware in the movie Matrix
His book was empty....
Also the same book Keanu was required to read before he took on the role.
Didnt baudrillard denounce matrix for that? Misrepresentation of his book?
i can see how jean baudrillard's over abundance of euphemisms, adjectives and metaphors can get on the reader's nerves when trying to understand his point(s) or what hes trying to communicate. otherwise, when you can unpack it, its fairly comprehensive, and learning a little about structuralism haha
this was very well done, congratulations! truly a video essay to be proud of
Loved this video and have subscribed!
American Psycho (both book and the film) was one of my favourites from being a teenager, way before I had read any philosophy or cultural theory. Great to find that there's more to be taken from going back to it!
My boy John out here really doing some analysis
You’re the only other person that I know of who has interpreted the ending of American Psycho in that manner, but I think you are correct.
Can you please explain it to me again? I didn't totally get it. Did the murders happen? If so, how was the room empty where he kept the bodies?
I love the analogy of the toothpaste effect. Great to see a video covering American phycho in this depth I've always loved the concept of this movie, all the subtleties that alot of people don't bother to pay no mind to really makes the film so great. It's a great representation of how things are now great video
Very well done video, I look forward to more content from you!
Great video that helped me grasp a lot of aspects of the movie I initially couldn't make sense of. One question: I am a bit confused by how seamlessly structuralism and postmodernism are drawn together. In the essay they appear like related ideas, but they are quite opposing. I guess my question is, where or how does the essay draw a difference between these two ideas for its analysis?
The name of the channel is a bit misleading, you risk getting mixed up with the brainlet sceptic peanut gallery, Red Pill Philosophy and the like. Keep up the the good work, I subscribed
Because being a communist is so much better.
@@calebcostigan2561 Glad you agree!
@@nonokraan6567 Just waiting to see a successful example of that...
Incredible. Thanks for your work!
My most sincere and enthusiastic "thanks" for this video. Being a frequent reader of Baudrillard, but also of Ellis, who humbly tried to put together a couple of Culture Jamming conferences, I now regret not having found your impressive channel before.
(I'll definitely check your Patreon profile). Un cordial saludo from Zürich.
I'm currently reading Joan Didion's essay collection _Political Fictions_ which is excellent anyway and excellent in particular on Reagan as an empty shell. In terms of both his work practices and his personal involvement with his material, whether film scripts or policy, she makes it clear with testimony from those who worked with him, he never really stopped being a B-list actor reciting lines.
The more I am listening to content about postmodernism, the more interesting it sounds. Thanks for explaining it in laymen terms.
Are you for postmoderism? Why? Why not?
i love postmodern philosophy, its killing me inside
I must have watched this video over 100 times.
An amazing video essay, rich with interesting ideas that I continuously go back to
this video just showed up on my recommended and combines my 2 favorite things postmodernism and american psycho, thank you so much
This is some high quality youtube content...
Always fun to listen to what you have to say
Amazing video with very illustrative examples. Subscribed!
Thank you for this video! It really inspired me to know more about Baudrillard
Excellent explanation of a postmodern philosopher as critiquing the postmodern condition. I think some people are confusing the postmodern condition for postmodern philosophy - then concluding that postmodern philosophy is psychopathic - but your video explains the relationship as condition & critique. We are literally products of our environment. Thank You.
Yes! That's a distinction I've been wanting to point out. Postmodern theory as a philosophy is different from postmodernity as a historical stage. One can identify the time we live in as postmodern, while still being critical of postmodernism. Just like Nietzsche identified modern times as nihilistic, while himself (contrary to a lot of mistaken categorizations) being anti-nihilist.
Wow! I've never heard that description of Nietzsche before. Thank You!
7:00 I did say once to a friend about this movie. "They have more in common with the chairs they're sitting in, than in one another."
Really good critique. Excellent work.
Very interesting, insightful and on-point, subscribed.
This... hit kinda close to home, haha. I really should read more Baudrillard.
I really liked this video even though I understood almost none of it.
The fact that you liked it and took the time to comment , already puts you on the path of understanding BM
I really like the style of your videos. Also impressive analysis!
Really liking these vids mates :3 keep it up!!!!
Did someone say NFT?
Never understood the appeal of Sargon of Akkad when there is content like this out there.
Korean Jesus hardly of interest to the same audience, you ‘progressive’ dolt.
@@nhmooytis7058 It's not just a lack of interest. Sargon is also incredibly dumb.
Korean Jesus unlike you who is a fucking genius.Sarg has 900+K subs. You have 62, 61 of whom are likely you,. ROFL.
@@nhmooytis7058 It's hilarious that you think an appropriate measure for intelligence is someone's amount of subscribers. I can think of plenty of people you'd have nothing but contempt for who are far more impactful than Sargon. On a side note: I'm not a content creator. You're comparing apples with oranges. I guess on your terms Anita Sarkeesian must be a fucking brain genious because she is also very popular and successful.
NHMO OYTIS You’ve really missed the point, Sargon’s a bad faith debate who uses sneaky techniques to promote an ‘immigration bad’ narrative through which he can thrust forth Brexit and other ideological matters.
Prob the most clear and understandeable analysis of this movie on YT, thanks for the explanations
Awesome stuff. Just bought your new book. Good luck!!
There is a lot of people that really don't like Baudrillard, personally I think he is very interesting. Particular interest to me is he notion of simulacra. When playing around with his ideas I incorporated the idea of the simulacra directly into the subject of cognition. Here the sign value becomes more constrained, but is consistent with the thoughts able to be products of themselves. In pure thought, thoughts can be removed of consequence. Problematic thoughts have consequences when they are correspond to actions. Without these actions the inside does not matter...................... Question is a thought a sign or a signifier?
Nice video. Reminded me of how much I like Baudrillard and it almost made me write a really long piece here.;-)
Wtf what did I just watch... that was brilliant wow
This video gives the deepest Patreon acknowledgement I've ever heard. Keep up the good work!
This is an outstanding video. Thank you ✨
THIS WAS WELL DONE. I SMILE AS MY EGO SMILES BACK AT ME. YES MY COMPLEMENT IS ABOUT ME. AS IF THIS WRITING MATTERS.
And this whole trend of Gen Z identifying themselves with Patrick Bateman speaks a lot about where we're going as a society... Scary shit
I love the combo of infos, very suitable vid for my before bed stories routine
Wow what video! Thanks for that and keep doing it PLEASE
I think its interesting that you take american psycho as an example
even tho i have a very different opinion about the movie it fits the narrative but there is one difference
you might want to consider this, batemans actions cant be taken as reality, there are many signs pointing to him only hallucinating, for example the scene where the ATM tells him to feed it a stray cat, the body that was hidden in the closet that just disappears, the scene where he rampages with a chainsaw and nobody seems to care, even if these people didnt care about him murdering they would most likely care about him making noise
If you view it from this perspective tho the point you made still holds up, in batemans world everyone is a clone of each other, same clothes, hairstyle, lifestyle. They still try to differentiate themselves from each other in little things without stopping to be clone, thats why its so important to them that theire absolutely identical looking business cards are made out of different materials, even tho you wouldnt be able to tell the difference if they didnt tell you. This is why bateman has gone crazy, he wishes he was a serial killer to so he would be drastically different from everyone else, to finally not be just another clone, he wants to break out of his lifestyle so badly but in the end it is impossible. He basically wants to escape the objects that own him, the people that embody himself and in the most extreme way, he wants to kill them. But he cant escape his condition.
You completely missed the meaning of AP if you think Bateman merely imagined or hallucinated muxh of what took place.
Actually, you pretty much validify the points made: Hyperrealism also means that the borders and distinction between "reality" and hallucination fall apart, in a black-hole-like "holistic spectacle". Obviously, the bateman tries to escape his condition, by all violent means, to retain some kind of subjective sovereignty, but he only ends up in a Moebius strip of signs and references, that he perpetuates. The "World Music" video resolves around a similar topic, btw: ua-cam.com/video/_sCRcfYRslg/v-deo.html .
So, the Character was. the Author. Imagination releasing. feelings.
@Shekel Master69 this video was commenting on the movie, not the book
Awesome
Great vid. One of my favorite films. Gotta read up on Baudrillard.
I don't 100% understand but hopefully I can keep reading and learning more that one day I can. Great video! Keep it up.
Fight Club is also heavily influenced by Baudrillard. The search for the real in a hollow universe - by way of ritualistic violence.
But the Fight Club doesn't represent reality, given violence as a form of masculine bonding without any use value, just becomes another 'sign'. A hollow sign of masculine liberation.
Moreover, Violence for the sake of it, for the sheer nihilistic hell of it, just to break through the banality of late 20th century Neo Capitalism - isn't an attack on the system, but rather is just a by-product of the system.
The movement that Fight Club inspires seems to have no discernible ideology. Its cause is unclear, just as we see with MRAs, ANTIFA, Anonymous;
SJWs, the Alt Right - the aims of the movements seemingly to create 'signs' of radicalism, divorced from any use value or coherent ideology..
Baudrillard claimed that nihilism couldn't attack nihilism. The nihilism just gets absorbed into the nihilistic system, and just becomes a 'sign' of nihilism Terrorism, Spree Killings, Serial Killers, Football hooligans just become another form of entertainment exploited by the mass media.
In fact, you might say that terrorists, spree killers; serial killers etc work as a deflection to obscure the nihilism implicit in the mass media.
Something similar to what Foucault said of asylums - being there to deflect from the insanity in the wider society.
And mass shootings?
Sjws seems to be based on new ethics on politeness and that NY thing, where people were asked to
"ANTIFA" 's cause is summed up right there, in the name. and SJWs aren't a thing. you find so many ideologies undiscernible, but that's because you're a very undiscerning person yourself.
Anti-Fascism is not an ideology.
trev moffatt just because you repeat it to yourself again and again won't make it true mate
Anti fascism is a protest - not an ideology. Antifa has no coherent program other than to resist fascism.
And besides where is the fascism?
Antifa's resistance is hardly commensurate to the problem. Rather it amounts to ritualistic nostalgia for a time when fascism was a real threat. When something was at stake.
Antifa and the Alt Right are just hollow, weak simulations of strong historical events.
Basically covering up the fact that history is essentially over in the West. A virtual hollowness too hideous to comprehend, hence the endless ritualization of history.
Both Antifa and the Alt Right are not so different from Reenactment Battles, it's just a little genuine violence is thrown in to make things seem real.
When Christian Bale was analyzing that card, it reminded me of a Graphic designer. Merging branding and art and you've got yourself a service that caters well in a capitalist system. It all comes down to if you can make people believe they need it.
"make people believe they need it."
*Capitalism entices people to want it. It's authoritarian to "make" people "need".*
This was so good. Definitely subbing
Good stuff, as usual. My favorite book from Baudrillard is "Consumer Society"