Jean Baudrillard French sociologist, post-modernist philosopher, author of more than 50 works and a literary hero of mine, was reported dead last week.
He focused his work on the interaction between consciousness, reality and fantasy, creating from them a copy world he called hyper-reality, positing that things do not happen if they are not seen. He came to some notoriety for suggesting (The Gulf War Did Not Take Place) that the 1991 Gulf War was a non-event and had been fought on a purely symbolic level in the media. He later said that the 11/09/01 attacks were "a dark fantasy" ("While terrorists had committed the atrocity, it is we who have wanted it. Terrorism is immoral, and it responds to a globalisation that is itself immoral.")
If the media now say that he is dead, then it must be so. The news of his demise, with no retraction after seven days, is proof enough of his lack of existence. In the event that a 77 year old Jean Baudrillard may still found to be walking and breathing then that person, most assuredly, will be a simulacrum.