I don't have any sort of Vendetta against Baudrillard, even though my previous post concerning him may have seemed that way. And this one might as well...
After having read System of Collecting, I think I've put my finger on what bothers me. Baudrillard is writing for the time. His essays simultaneously date themselves and declare their universal truth.
I find this problematic.
System of Collecting tells us that the majority of collectors are pre-pubescent or are in the throws of mid-life crises. Either way they're sex-deprived. Fifteen years after the essay is written this is false. Those small children he was writing about at the time who were collecting are still collecting. What's more is they're collecting in a much different way than he would have had us believe. Curatorial rather than set building. No one builds an entire set anymore, but instead goes for the objects that they find attractive. Collections are meant to be seen, not completed.
As always I find Baudrillard interesting to read, but a little out of tune with the present. It seems philosophizing is a little sloppy if it dates so quickly.
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