In the
Philosophy section, I will select, from one of the most mind-blowing of mind-blowers... Jean Baudrillard's
Simulacra and Simulation.
The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true.
Originally published in 1985, Baudrillard's startling theories shook the foundations of postmodern thought. Building upon the ideas of Jameson, Lyotard, Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze, Simulacra and Simulations can be considered as one of the most ground-breaking and seminal texts in postmodern philosophy/theory.
The simulacrum is the replacement of reality and meaning in society with a series of symbols and signs - which begin as representations of reality. However these signs have become so familiar to us as to render the original irrelevent, lost; such that only the representations exist as reality. In fact, there is no reality - in the modern sense - it is lost, and there is only the simulacrum.
Baudrillard went on to apply this theoretical framework to numerous historical events - perhaps most famously in his statement that the Gulf War of 1991 "did not take place". (The media representations of the war do not simply influence the perception of the war to viewers and readers; rather that the perception of the war only exists via these representations - they are the only base of "reality" a viewer has, and thus supercede and become reality.)
Baudrillard's work has also been credited as the largest single influence on The Matrix series - which even includes an overt (and somewhat heavy-handed) reference to Simulacra and Simulation, as Neo pulls the book itself off the shelf and hides something within it - har har!
Apparently, Baudrillard was less than impressed with the Wachowski's far too literal interpretation of his work... Though personally I am inclined to salute the effort to incorporate some pretty abstract material into a big-budget studio movie.