The Signs of Our Time: Semiotics the Hidden Messages of Environments Objects and Cultural Images

Every day we are bombarded with hundreds of symbols and covert messages that influence the way we spend. In this book, Solomon shows how to recognize these symbols and, in the process, learn the secret meanings of everyday life.

YA-- A non-academic book on semiotics--the study of how signals are sent in contemporary culture. It is designed to show that messages of power and status are sent in everything from selecting toys for children to fashion, food, and gender. Obviously, American advertising is a large generator of these signals, but Solomon makes it clear that society generates the messages as well. He examines recent television shows, the architecture of shopping malls, and even the scandals of Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert to show that semiotics would be a dynamic in life without the help of the advertising world. In addition to helping readers to know more about the meaning of everyday symbols and their unspoken messages to our society, the book contains a gem of a last chapter which discusses post-modernism and deconstructionism in an accessible way. These movements, touchstones of literate contemporary society, are rarely broken down and explained. An annotated suggested reading list rounds out a pleasing commentary on an aspect of contemporary life.
- Barbara Weathers, Duchesne Academy, Houston
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