Glocal Hyperreal and the Sad Demise of the Corporeal: An Obituary

Abstract:     
This paper deals with real-hyperreal duality in the context of proliferation of Electronic Capitalism and its subsequent death industry, unusually depending on some facts and fictions, which are strictly discouraged as well as disallowed within the strict format or Procrustean bed (Prokrustes is a giant in the Greek mythology, Damastes or otherwise, who laid all human beings on his bed and then “lop them or rack them out to make fit it.”) of dominant scientific writing. I apologize for such inconvenient way of representation as I am writing an obituary of the grave incident of real death in contrast with the imaginary world of fairytale economy as proposed by the prosperous masters (sexism intended) of the universe.

For the facts, I am depending on the report of Andhra-suicides published in the Frontline (27 April, 2001) and treat that exposition as a real discourse and on the other hand, this paper will deal with the hyperreal as constructed by those masters of the universe. Lastly, it also depends on “imagined” fictions by Manik Bandyopadhyay and Samaresh Basu. This difference between these facts and fictions is often fuzzy as Chakrovorty Spivak(1997:76) aptly said that the difference is “in degree rather than in kind”. These real facts and fictions will be placed against the hyperreal simulated world of development to understand its immediate consequence, the death industry.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 16

Keywords: Hyperreal, suicide as a market fact, simulation, death industry

working papers series