Amazon.com: Simulacra and Simulation (The Body, in Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism)

Any book with a reference to Borges deserves my eye. Any book mentioned by The Matrix is equally deserving. This is the book that Neo puts his cash-for-hacks money into before he goes to the club in the first movie. Anyways, a pass through the exceprt appears very entertaining, so I hope to get this eventually.

Baudrillard and Hollywood

Okay, I'm a full-blown matrix nerd now. That aside, I noticed upon re-watching the first matrix the book that Neo puts his cash-for-hacks into. It's a copy of Baudrillard's Simulation and Simulacra. The chapter he opens to is titled "On Nihilism." I looked it up and got the link above.

Apparently Neo actually represents a terrorist. He represents the Christ of Nihilism. From the link:

The chapter of Simulacra and Simulation entitled "On Nihilism" advocates terrorism as the means of "checking in broad daylight" the mechanisms of control, but observes that the system is itself nihilistic and can absorb even violence into its indifference.

Good mind food. I think I'm going to pick up some stuff from Baudrillard. There's some essays of his on the left in the blogroll. Also, Baudrillard invented the term, "Desert of the Real."

Also, good read is New Yorker's review of the Matrix. Link will be dead in a week.