The work of Baudrillard is particularly useful in identifying and analyzing the
tangible confusion of reality and unreality examined in this thesis.
Baudrillard’s work conveys a particular interest in the technological causes
and consequences of this confusion, and so has important repercussions
today. His provocative ideas are expressed through examples, myths and
illustrations taken from popular and historical culture, and their resonance
can clearly be seen in films such as The Matrix which fictionalize and make
palatable his ideas of the Simulacrum, Hyperreality and the transformation of
the relationship between the object and the referent. Simulacrum is,
according to Baudrillard, something that replaces reality with its
representation:
Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential
being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of the
real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.(...) It is no longer a
question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is
a question of substituting the reality for the signs of the real
(Baudrillard, 2001a: 166).
Defining Simulacrum, Baudrillard seems to provide the synopsis of The Matrix.
Indeed, the release of The Matrix seems to constitute a crucial moment in
the social understanding about the (un)reality that surrounds us and the
(defensive) mechanism of doubt that we should use. Just as Morpheus asks
Neo in The Matrix if he wants to know reality or live in the Simulacrum,
offering him a blue or a red pill,3 our society is facing the dilemma of
discovering what the representations hide or (un)consciously immersing
ourselves in Simulacrum, ignoring the consequences.
Baudrillard understands the reality of today as being produced from
miniaturized units, matrices, memory banks and command models. In this
respect, he sees in Disneyland the perfect illustration of a Simulacrum, the
fabrication from the cultural industry of the absolute fake:
3 Morpheus: ‘This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the
story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill -
you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes’. In other words, the ‘red pill
awakens the individual to reality and the blue pill puts it back into the sleep of self-centred illusion’
(Irwin, 2002: 143).
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