Baudrillard

Today, this morning, sitting in my Starbuck's, looking at my Walgreen's, I read Baudrillard's Cool Memories. And it strikes me. I can have so much to say in such small terms. And here I will tell you something he says, not something I said but something he said. Something with which I can resonate though.

"John grows up normally, but doesn't talk, and this drives his parents to distraction. When he is about 16, at last, one teatime, he says 'I'd like a little sugar.' His mother is staggered and asks, 'But John, why have you never said anything up to now?' 'Up to now, everything was perfect.'

If anything is perfect, language is useless. This is true for animals. If animals don't speak, it's because everything's perfect for them. If one day they start to speak, it will be because the world has lost a certain sort of perfection."

Baudrillard, J. (1990) Cool Memories. Trans. Chris Turner. New York: Verso.