Reality and Simulacra in David Cronenberg’s eXxistenZ
Reality and Simulacra in David Cronenberg’s eXxistenZ

Summary/Abstract: The director of eXistenZ (released in 1999), David Cronenberg, raises certain issues related to a culture which is so deeply rooted in everything related to technology, that it is not able to distinguish between the imaginary and the real, between organic and mechanic. In the world created by Cronenberg, the most popular form of entertainment is represented by a game which physically connects to the human body and which replaces other forms of recreation, dissolving, thus, the thin line which separates the imaginary from the real. The present article is an attempt at examining and filtering the ideas exposed in the film, by making use of the insight provided by cultural theorists Marshall McLuhan and Jean Baudrillard, and it is trying to answer the question: in what psycho-social direction is humanity headed, taking into consideration the fact that the effects of technology upon the human mind and body become more and more visible?

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