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Why Does Baudrillard Discuss Borges's Map?

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1.) Why does Baudrillard discuss Borges’s map?

Borges’s map was meant to represent the worlds insistence to recreate the things that we see in exact detail, yet he uses the tale to point out the fact that todays society has redefined images and objects thanks to mass media, confusing reality with that of the representation. He states that “the map precedes the territory” which I take to mean that the medium precedes the message. More so, that the copy of an image, the representation, precedes the actual object. The creation of the copy has been created on such a minute and “genetic” level its hard to decipher from actual reality especially since we have nothing to measure reality against so it doesn’t have to be rational.*** (119)

2.) What is simulation, based on the anecdote of the map?

Simulation is the creation of a real without having to be real in any way.** In terms of the map, the real are the pieces of the map that are disappearing and decaying while simulation, the ….., is taking its place.

3.) What is the difference between representation, simulation, and dissimulation?

Simulation is the representation or imitation of the real, pretending to have something that is missing or lacked. Baudrillard uses the example of someone pretending to be sick. If they were to simulate that illness, they would …show more content…

With studies arising on the affects of media on the mind and social perceptions, it is known that media does have a strong effect on the way we see the world and ourselves. The creation of the proper body image, the cool cars, or the socially accepted places to go are all generated and not based on reality. I don’t believe that all things have lost their touch with reality, but I do however believe that we, as a society, have compiled perceptions of things, like different people and their lifestyles, places and their

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