FloRida, 10/4

This whole idea about reality truly continues to interest me. I think it is because I can understand through things that happen in everyday life. Watching television, hanging out with friends, posters that are up around campus all relate to the concepts of reality that we have been studying in class. When the class was asked if what we think is reality is the real reality or is the fiction the reality. These questions that were posed can appear to be somewhat confusing…which they are. A majority of the class viewed the reality as false. Baudrillard asks, “Does reality actually outstrip fiction?” If the answer is yes, (which most of the class answered), then this means that reality has become more fictional than real. This could be because the media portrays our “reality” as scripted with plots and frames. Fiction is more controlled and something that is watched. The powerpoint that we went over describing the successive phases of the image really struck me with interest. I was so unaware of the actual significance of how a picture is portrayed and the different ways it could be viewed. The image with the caskets covered in American Flags looked like it would be viewed as the reality. When we were told that according to Baudrillard it would be considered masked and denaturing reality, it was eye opening. These ideas of good images, evil images, sorcery, and simulacric honestly made so much sense in my mind. At first simulacra kind of confused me but when Dr. Rog explained it through the example of Johnny Rockets. Whenever I go to places that represent different time periods I always feel like I actually know what the time period was like, even though I never lived through it. I believe this notion of simulacra occurs through images we see, stories we are told, and media representation.