Description

“Foucault’s writing is perfect. It invests and saturates the entire space it opens. The smallest qualifiers find their way into the slightest interstices of meaning; clauses and chapters wind into spirals. His discourse mirrors the powers it describes. Therein lies its seductive strength, its potential for generating an internal simulation of power.” First published by Semiotext(e) in 1987, this volume combines Jean Baudrillard’s short 1977 critique of Michel Foucault’s “collusion” with power with an-depth interview conducted by Sylvère Lotringer summarizing Baudrillard’s conception of history and the sociological roots of his work. “Ours is a culture of premature ejaculation,” proclaims Baudrillard. “Forget Baudrillard” is a re-evaluation, by Baudrillard in the present, of his lesser known early works as a post-Marxian thinker. How did he get here from there? In this conversation, Lotringer presses Baudrillard to explain how he arrived at the extrapolationist theories he is best known for from their bases in 19th and early 20th century social and anthropological works of Karl Marx, Marcel Mauss and Emil Durkheim.