Part II_The Hyperreality of Titanic (cont'd)

However, might it as well be the case that his prophecy is but a poetic literary practice, which replaces sociological validity with descriptive complacency? Christopher Norris (1990) points out precisely the mistake made by Baudrillard in his otherwise seamless account of some of the most acute observation of the late 20th century. Norris suggests that,

“Baudrillard’s mistake is to move straight on from a descriptive account of certain prevalent conditions in the late twentieth-century lifeworld to a wholesale anti-realist stance which takes those conditions as a pretext for dismantling every last claim to validity or truth.”[1]

Where does Baudrillard go wrong in his analysis? What might have been forsaken in his generalization of the media? What could be refuted in his theory, especially now when the 21st century is approaching fast? How could his claim be understood differently from it first appeared about twenty years ago? The following section aims to negotiate these problems, if not necessarily providing an answer.

[1] C. Norris, ‘Lost in The Funhouse: Baudrillard and The Politics of Postmodernism’ in R. Boyne and A. Rattansi (eds) Postmodernism and Society, 1990.