"Simulacra and Simulations"

Jean Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulations" was a very difficult read for me. Once I finished reading the article I consulted help from articles found on Google and Wikipedia. From what I was able to gather, Baudrillard compares and contrasts the ideas of simulation and reality.

One interesting example he discusses is that simulation of an illness is different than feigning an illness. By simulating an illness one produces symptoms and emulates an illness. To feign an illness is to pretend that one exists. This made sense to me because when I imagine a simulation I picture something being created. In my opinion, a simulation is a creation intended to mimic or parallel reality.

According to Baudrillard, we have lost sense of reality. He explains that our society has become dependent on signs and symbols (simulacra: likenesses) which simulate reality. I kind've get a sense of what he is trying to explain but overall it is too "deep" for me to completely grasp.

I found Baudrillard's discussion on Disneyland to be interesting. I believe he was trying to explain that when one enters Disneyland, they completely forget about the reality of the real world. Walt Disney was able to simulate a completely different world. A passage that I found interesting and confusing was,

"By an extraordinary coincidence (one that undoubtedly belongs to the peculiar enchantment of this universe), this deep-frozen infantile world happens to have been conceived and realized by a man who is himself now cryogenized; Walt Disney, who awaits his resurrection at minus 180 degrees centigrade."

Is this true or is Baudrillard using sarcasm in this passage? What point is he trying to make here? I have no idea how cryogenics work and a quick Google search tells me that this is an urban myth.

Although very confusing and complex, I understand why this piece was chosen as an assignment in my Digital Media class. The fact that simulation is all around us and we've lost sense of reality is an interesting thought. I look forward to tomorrow's discussion. Hopefully through this discussion I can gain some more insight on this article.