Prosthetic Conscience

Denny’s Classic Diner as Simulacrum

In Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation (known mainly as the hollowed-out book Neo used to hide discs in The Matrix), a simulacrum is defined more or less as a copy without a model; a copy of a copy whose relationship to the original is so tenuous as to undermine the idea of there ever being an original. Denny’s Classic Diners are a simulacrum.

Originally diners started out as diner cars on trains. Sometimes they were decommissioned and served as stationary structures. Later, prefabricated structures were built along the same lines as diner cars and used in much the same way. Still later, diners were made that weren’t necessarily prefabricated structures, but still more or less architecturally referenced the original diner cars and prefab diners; these were in the 50’s, and so often had lots of chrome and Space Age styling. Denny’s Classic Diners are a copy of those 50’s diners, except that they’re not; they’re really just the same as any other Denny’s. They don’t really have any relationship to the original, which hardly anyone probably even remembers at this point (more people will remember the 50’s diners). So if you eat a sundae at Denny’s, remember that you’re eating the Dessert of the Real ;).

[ Posted: 21:18] | [ Category: /philosophy] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]