i haven't yet seen this on any major news sites yet, but apparently French theorist Baudrillard died today. Baudrillard wrote on consumerism, among other things, and liked to push the limits of conventional analytic categories like "needs" and "wants," arguing for instance that even the will to live is socially conditioned and circumscribed.
French philosopher and social theorist Jean Baudrillard dies
Heh... Levi Strauss outlived Jean Baudrillard. So what does that say for the staying power of structuralism vs. post-structuralism? ;)