continues to exist; it is its principle that is dead. Now, reality without its principle is no
longer the same at all. If, for many different reasons, the principle of representation, which
alone gives it a meaning, falters, then the whole of the real falters (The Intelligence of Evil
17-18).
The final scenes of “The Hobbit” unequivocally suggest that our elaborate networks of
instantaneous symbolic exchange, which are supposed to help us make sense out of the world
and to render our lives more meaningful, have begun to obliterate the reality principle itself.
Wendy receives an unexpected visit from Kim Kardashian’s boyfriend Kanye West. The
rapper reads her a bedtime story about an evil girl who crushes the dreams of a hobbit who
transformed herself into a beautiful princess by means of “a magic power named Photoshop.”
West finally realizes that his girlfriend is indeed a hobbit, but he confesses that he prefers to live
in the imaginary realm where his significant other is the epitome of beauty. Wendy has
successfully torn a hole in the hyper-real fabric that enshrouds Kim Kardashian’s iconic image as
a sex symbol. However, she is now cognizant as to why there is such little resistance to
symbolic fantasies. When grandiose simulations of the good life including representations of
eroticism are so beautiful, why would anyone choose to live in the real world?
Now fully aware that she is one of the only people who still valorize the reality principle or
who have any connection to it whatsoever, Wendy makes a fateful decision at the end of the
episode. Acting upon her boyfriend Stan’s request for a “new picture” to replace his outdated
ones, Wendy enters the school computer lab where she manipulates her image using Photoshop.
In the final scene of “The Hobbit,” Wendy cries profusely after uploading this photograph to a
social media website. The ‘murder’ of the real Wendy is now complete. This young girl has
resigned herself to the fate of an empty existence in the world of integral reality. Wendy realizes
that even if she were able to wake up more consumer citizens like Kanye West and force them to
confront the nothingness that lurks beneath the surface of the image, most individuals would
choose to reenter the hyper-real world of fiction.
Furthermore, Wendy knows that she has been fighting a losing battle given that the pull of
the mesmerizing images which saturate the modern subject is simply too strong. She is alone in
her quest to (re)-embrace reality and what true femininity entails, thus she reluctantly acquiesces.
Wendy is visibly ashamed of herself, but the viewer respects her decision due to the advent of
integral reality. There seems to be no solution to the existential dilemma of living in nonsense
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