In his provocative new book, Zoos in Postmodernism: Signs and
Simulation, marine biologist Stephen Spotte lumps together public
aquariums and zoological parks (which he collectively calls zoos) and
treats them as cultural derivatives assessable using semiotics (the
study of signs and their meanings) and Baudrillard's models of
simulation. He concludes that only modernist zoos can exist in
postmodern times, making captive animal displays anachronistic. Today's
zoos are thus reminiscent of an era generally agreed to have ended with
the 1950s. Unable to evolve and compete with contemporary
entertainments, they can only be spectacles viewed passively.