Post-Class - Baudrillard/Memento

This week was really interesting in terms of the new concepts and theorists introduced along with Tuesday night’s screening.  Between watching Christopher Nolan’s film Memento and discussing Baudrillard’s text “The Precession of Simulacra” and “The Desert of the Real”, we have definitely been given a lot to think about when it comes to discussing the notion of simulation. I have to agree with my other classmates in that Memento was somewhat confusing, and yet still a great film. It all comes back to the question “What is real”. Memento answers this in the idea that “truth is subject to perception and memory”. This film being formatted in reverse chronological order puts us in the same seat as Leonard, trying to piece together his day basing on his pictures, his tattoos and his own handwriting. To Leonard, this is the only form of truth that he can trust since it comes from himself, even though he may not understand why he takes the pictures or writes the captions. It is his own perception of reality that he believes in, however altered it may be. This can be connected to our discussion on the simulations that can be found in Disney World or Las Vegas. We go to the places with the unconscious ideas of escapism. We like to escape into the simulations created for us at places like Caesars palace and Epcot. We like it so much that we are sometimes willing to give up reality. I know I have left places like this, wishing I didn’t have to return to the “real” world and wishing that like could be as epic, grand and fun like Vegas.