iThe System of Objectsi is a tour de force--a theoretical letter-in-a-bottle tossed into the ocean in 1968, which brilliantly communicates to us all the live ideas of the day. pPressing Freudian and Saussurean categories into the service of a basically Marxist perspective, iThe System of Objects ioffers a cultural critique of the commodity in consumer society. Baudrillard classifies the everyday objects of the new technical order as functional, nonfunctional and metafunctional. He contrasts modern and traditional functional objects, subjecting home furnishing and interior design to a celebrated semiological analysis. His treatment of nonfunctional or marginal objects focuses on antiques and the psychology of collecting, while the metafunctional category extends to the useless, the aberrant and even the schizofunctional. Finally, Baudrillard deals at length with the implications of credit and advertising for the commodification of everyday life. piThe System of Objectsi is a tour de for