Paroxysm

Closely interviewed by the French journalist Philippe Petit, Baudrillard covers a vast range of topics, including Fukuyama, 1989 and the collapse of Communism; Bosnia, the Gulf War, Rwanda and the New World Order; globalization and universalization; the return of ethnic nationalisms; the nature of war; revisionism and Holocaust denial; Deleuze, Foucalt, Bataille and Virilio; nihilism and the apocalyptic; the practice of writing; virtual reality; the west and the East; the culture of victimhood and repentance; human rights and citizenship; French intellectuals and engagement; the nature of capitalism today; consumer society and social exclusion; liberation; death, violence and necrophilia; reality, illusion and the media; and destabilization of all aspects of life including sexuality.

Baudrillard's answers-which span politics, philosophy and culture-are concise, witty and trenchant, and they serve as both an accessible introduction to his ideas for the unfamiliar and a fascinating clarification of recent positions for the connoisseur.