(Critical Junkyard) Parousia

I found this term in the ever-so-strange Baudrillard essay about China Syndrome.

Dictionary.com says, Parousia-"the presence in any thing of the idea after which it was formed"


This freak occurrence of parousia is not only an interesting element of China Syndrome vs its real counterpart the 3 Mile Island disaster, but can also be seen in White Noise. During the Airborne Toxic Event, Steffie and Denise (And later even Babette) only get the symptoms mentioned by the radio until they have already been exposed to hearing about it. Sure, we can say that there aren't any real effects because they are sort of mentally induced, but it still happens this way.