This book addresses the question: what happens after the betrayal?
And it comes after the orgy of Why hasn't JB already disappeared (Delere Press, 2017): keeping in mind that the title is in the form of a statement, and not a question; even though the quest constantly haunts what is stated, and remains with us -- quite possibly -- as l'intelligence du mal. For, even as writing on someone, even in homage, is always already a writing on, writing over, perhaps even a writing-out of someone, it is also an addition of, an adding of, something onto; where writing is a scratching into a surface, at the very same time as something is scratched out of a material, from a medium.
Thus, writing on JB, about JB, is quite possibly literally writing JB's disappearance.
And, where what is read, can be read, is perhaps what allows itself to be seen, to be glimpsed at -- the remains of the skin which comes to us; the simulacrum, as it were.
Where the very disappearance happens in the appearance: otherwise we could not even know of its possibility. Where the very art in the notion of « the whole art is to know how to disappear before dying and instead of dying » lies in the artifice called disappearance itself.
Which opens the possibility that my reconciliation with JB -- our making up, as it were -- could lie in nothing other than make up itself.
Marine Dupuis Baudrillard met Jean in 1970 when she arrived at the University of Paris-Nanterre. She was 25 years old and was just back from a sailing trip around the world. Journalist (TV and magazines), artistic director, and scuba-diving instructor. They got married in 1994. She takes care of the "Cool Memories" Association of Jean Baudrillard's friends.
Jeremy Fernando reads, and writes; and is the Jean Baudrillard Fellow at The European Graduate School. He is the general editor of the thematic magazine One Imperative, and a Fellow of Tembusu College at The National University of Singapore.
John W P Phillips teaches critical theory at The National University of Singapore. He writes about theatre, psychoanalysis, postmodernism, photography, philosophy, new media, music, military technology, literature, education, cities, and art. He has recently completed a book on Jacques Derrida and is currently writing a book on philosophy and its songs to the dawn.
Sarah and Schooling is a two-woman graphic design studio based in Singapore.
