Reaction Essay: "Simulacra and Simulations"

My foundation for understanding simulacra is through my high school epistemology course. Simulacra was discussed through our discourse concerning ways in which knowledge is acquired and accepted criterion for truth. In my mind, the best way to define simulacra is "a copy without an original". Through a basic understanding, I was able to better comprehend
Jean Baudrillard's piece, which I have also been exposed to as a text for the truth of knowledge, epistemology course.

The introductory quotation is first worth reacting to. Beaudrillard's inclusion of this quotation is ingenious in that it is simulacra in itself. The quote "The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true." 'Ecclesiastes. Now there is doubt to the validity of this conclusion, but my professor in high school led the class to dissect the Bible's Ecclesiastes for this statement regarding simulacra, and we all came up empty handed. It may be that Baudrillard geniously and intentionally compiled this quotation and credited Ecclesiastes to illustrate the power of simulacra for creating truth. This quote, if not from Ecclesiastes, is in itself a simulacrum, and in line with the quotation, through the word "Ecclesiastes" it becomes true and accepted knowledge.

I found it important that Baudrillard points out that at a point simulation and representation had beautiful characteristics in terms of coextensivity, where cartographers were able to produce projects where "charm" lies in the concept itself aside from the charm of what's real and being represented. Baudrillard points out that the differences between abstractions of the past and abstractions of today lie in the fact that today's simulations are comprised of a difficulty to differentiate between the concept and the real thing. This is best said in the author's statement: "It is no longer a question of imitation, nor of reduplication, nor even of parody. It is rather a question of substituting signs of the real for the real itself".

The language Baudrillard uses to illustrate his point is complex and creates difficulty in comprehending his ideas. When he uses Disneyland as an example of the hyperreal, I imply he is suggesting that the concept of Disneyland and similar theme parks, create a simulated reality that makes it seem like what is outside the park is "real". This "real" world however in fact as presented by Baudrillard is no more real than Disneyland. Baudrillard writes: "Disneyland is there to conceal the fact that it is the "real" country, all of "real" America, which is
Disneyland (just as prisons are there to conceal the fact that it is the social in its entirety, in its banal omnipresence, which is carceral)." I found this breakdown, or statement toward prisons fascinating. Our country's means of carceration serve to incarcerate those previously entrapped by an imprisoning society? Is this what Baudrillard is saying? Our prisons hide the fact that society in itself is carcereal as Disneyland through creating imaginitive settings conceals the imaginative nature of all life?

I enjoy how Baudrillard also discusses how the task of restoring the truth to the simulacrum is a "false problem" considering the simulated has become truth through mental acceptance rather than from a valid or true original. Baudrillard illustrates through complex language that simulation has serious blows to mortality and his piece catalyzes further academic discourse on truth.