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Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things: An Introduction to Semiotics
This book deals with one the most interesting aspects of human life—the search for meaning. It discusses how the science of semiotics is equipped to provide insight on what meaning is and how we produce it. Why is it that certain people routinely put their survival at risk by smoking? Why is it that some women make locomotion difficult for themselves by donning high-heel footwear? Are there unconscious forces at work behind such strange behaviors? This book will attempt to answer such questions by claiming that these behaviors are meaningful in culture-specific ways. The discipline that studies such behaviors and their relation to meanings is called semiotics. Semiotics probes the human condition in its own peculiar way, by unraveling the meanings of signs, which motivate not only the wearing of high heel shoes, but also the construction of words and art forms.
Now in its third edition, this landmark introduction to semiotics has been updated with a wealth of new content, focusing on the many developments in digital culture since the previous edition. With the addition of topics such as memes, Selfies, social media profiles, and even Mafia discourse, the new edition comprehensively covers new trends in culture while streamlining treatments of basic semiotics contents.
Now in its third edition, this landmark introduction to semiotics has been updated with a wealth of new content, focusing on the many developments in digital culture since the previous edition. With the addition of topics such as memes, Selfies, social media profiles, and even Mafia discourse, the new edition comprehensively covers new trends in culture while streamlining treatments of basic semiotics contents.
367 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1999
25 people are currently reading
275 people want to read
About the author
Marcel Danesi
273 books34 followersMarcel Danesi (b. Marcello Danesi, 1946) is a current Professor of Semiotics and Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Toronto. He is known for his work in language, communications, and semiotics; being Director of the Program in Semiotics and Communication Theory.
He has also held positions at Rutgers University (1972), The University of Rome "La Sapienza" (1988), the Catholic University of Milan (1990), and the University of Lugano.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies and is a past-president of the Semiotic Society of America.
He has also held positions at Rutgers University (1972), The University of Rome "La Sapienza" (1988), the Catholic University of Milan (1990), and the University of Lugano.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies and is a past-president of the Semiotic Society of America.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 18, 2018
It felt as if the promise of this book was wider than the delivery.
Q:
Similarly, to an outsider the Russian kalbak appears to be a brimless red hat; to a Russian living in rural areas, it once meant that the wearer is a medical doctor. (c) Uhhh… There is NO 'kalbak' in Russian. Exactly what the writer is talking about?? Where does he get his info?
PS. A fellow Goodreader pointed out, the word the author wanted to mention was 'kolpak'. Well, there is 'kolpak' word. It never was a national hat worn by doctor in Russia. Doctors never wore red hats in Russia. Well, they weren't forbidden to wear a hat of any color, if they wanted to, but there were no traditions concerning that. Village idiots or professional jesters sometimes could be seen wearing 'kolpaki' (pl. for 'kolpak'). Also, in some regions men wore kolpak to bed, to keep head in warmth (women, respectively, wore 'chepchiki' (pl)).
Q:
Yanomamo tribal members, who live in the jungle of Amazonia, and wear very little clothing because of the climate, a woman would feel as much discomfort and agony at removing her vaginal string belt… (c) Yanomami would be more common. And there is no 'vaginal string belts' in their culture, the closest approximation would be a 'loincloth'.
Q:
Let’s start by first examining the smoking gestures that our two subjects made. As the video starts, we see Cheryl taking her cigarette out of its package in a slow, deliberate manner, inserting it coquettishly into the middle of her mouth, then bringing the flame of a match towards it in a leisurely, drawn-out fashion. Next to Cheryl, we see Ted also taking his cigarette from its package, but, in contrast, he employs a terse movement, inserting it into the side of his mouth, and then lighting it with a swift hand action. As the two puff away, we see Cheryl keeping the cigarette between her index and third fingers, periodically flicking the ashes into an outside ashtray provided by the restaurant for smokers, inserting and removing the cigarette from her mouth, always with graceful, circular, slightly swooping motions of the hand. Occasionally, she tosses her long, flowing hair back, away from her face. Ted is leaning against a nearby wall, keeping his head taut, looking straight, holding his cigarette between the thumb and middle finger, guiding it to the side of his mouth with sharp, pointed movements. Cheryl draws in smoke slowly, retaining it in her mouth for a relatively longer period than Ted, exhaling the smoke in an upwards direction with her head tilted slightly to the side, and, finally, extinguishing her cigarette in the ashtray. Ted inhales smoke abruptly, keeping the cigarette in his mouth for a relatively shorter period of time, blowing the smoke in a downward direction (with his head slightly aslant), and then extinguishing the cigarette by pressing down on the butt with his thumb, almost as if he were effacing or destroying evidence. (c)
Q:
During World War II , physicians encouraged sending soldiers cigarettes in ration kits. (c)
Q:
People will do something, even if it puts their lives at risk, for no other reason than it is interesting. Smoking in moderndaysocieties makes courtship interesting. A colleague of mine once quipped that semiotics can be defined as the study of “anything that is interesting.” (c)
Q:
Take Salem cigarettes as a case in point. In the late 1990s the makers of the cigarettes created an abstractly designed package, imitative of symbolist or expressionist style. The company mailed out a sample package along with four gift packages—a box of peppermint tea, a container of Chinese fortune cookies, a bottle of mint-scented massage gel, and finally a candle—throughout the country. Each package came with a coupon for a free pack of cigarettes. The package’s new design, along with the occult nature of the gifts, were designed to impart a mystical aura to the cigarettes. It is no coincidence that the name of the brand itself is suggestive of the occult. (c)
Q:
However, in a fascinating book, Valerie Steele has argued that we are all fetishists to an extent, and that the line between the “normal” and the “abnormal” in sexual preferences and behaviors is a blurry one indeed. Fashion designers, for instance, steal regularly from the fetishist’s closet, promoting ultra-high heels, frilly underwear, latex suits, and the like. The appropriation has been so complete that people wearing such footwear, garments, and apparel are generally unaware of their fetishist origins. (c)
Q:
When we instinctively pose the question of what something means, in effect, we are engaging in basic semiotic thinking. In addition, as mentioned, we find this interesting. Semiotics constitutes a “questioning form” of investigation into the nature of things that is not unlike the type of reasoning used by detectives, fictional or real-life. In fact, detective stories are really semiotic investigations in disguise. This is probably what makes them so popular. (c)
Q:
Confucius (c. 551–479 BCE) wrote: “Signs and symbols rule the world, not words or laws.” (c)
Q:
The computer has also introduced a new form of text-making and text-usage
known as hypertextuality . Reading a printed page is, at the level of the signifier (that is, of deciphering the actual physical signs on the page), a linear process, since it consists in decoding the individual words and their combinations in sentences in the framework of a specific signification system (a novel, a dictionary, and so on). Information on any specific sign in the printed text must be sought out physically: for example, if one wants to follow up on a reference in the text, one has to do it by consulting other printed texts or by asking people.
This is also what must be done when one wants to determine the meaning of a
word found in a text. Dictionaries serve this very purpose. The computer screen has greatly facilitated such tasks by introducing a hypertextual dimension. The term hypertext was coined in 1965 to describe an interlinked system of texts in which a user can jump from one to another. This was made possible with the invention of hyperlinks —portions of a document that can be linked to other related documents. By clicking on the hyperlink, the user is immediately connected to the document specified by the link. Web pages are designed in this way, being written in a simple computer language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). A series of instruction tags are inserted into pieces of ordinary text to control the way the page looks and these can be manipulated when viewed with a Web browser. Tags determine the typeface or act as instructions to display images, and they can be used to link up with other Web pages.
As opposed to the linear structure of printed paper texts, hypertextuality permits the user to browse through related topics, regardless of the presented order of the topics. The links are often established both by the author of a hypertext document and by the user, depending on the intent of the document. (c)
Q:
Similarly, to an outsider the Russian kalbak appears to be a brimless red hat; to a Russian living in rural areas, it once meant that the wearer is a medical doctor. (c) Uhhh… There is NO 'kalbak' in Russian. Exactly what the writer is talking about?? Where does he get his info?
PS. A fellow Goodreader pointed out, the word the author wanted to mention was 'kolpak'. Well, there is 'kolpak' word. It never was a national hat worn by doctor in Russia. Doctors never wore red hats in Russia. Well, they weren't forbidden to wear a hat of any color, if they wanted to, but there were no traditions concerning that. Village idiots or professional jesters sometimes could be seen wearing 'kolpaki' (pl. for 'kolpak'). Also, in some regions men wore kolpak to bed, to keep head in warmth (women, respectively, wore 'chepchiki' (pl)).
Q:
Yanomamo tribal members, who live in the jungle of Amazonia, and wear very little clothing because of the climate, a woman would feel as much discomfort and agony at removing her vaginal string belt… (c) Yanomami would be more common. And there is no 'vaginal string belts' in their culture, the closest approximation would be a 'loincloth'.
Q:
Let’s start by first examining the smoking gestures that our two subjects made. As the video starts, we see Cheryl taking her cigarette out of its package in a slow, deliberate manner, inserting it coquettishly into the middle of her mouth, then bringing the flame of a match towards it in a leisurely, drawn-out fashion. Next to Cheryl, we see Ted also taking his cigarette from its package, but, in contrast, he employs a terse movement, inserting it into the side of his mouth, and then lighting it with a swift hand action. As the two puff away, we see Cheryl keeping the cigarette between her index and third fingers, periodically flicking the ashes into an outside ashtray provided by the restaurant for smokers, inserting and removing the cigarette from her mouth, always with graceful, circular, slightly swooping motions of the hand. Occasionally, she tosses her long, flowing hair back, away from her face. Ted is leaning against a nearby wall, keeping his head taut, looking straight, holding his cigarette between the thumb and middle finger, guiding it to the side of his mouth with sharp, pointed movements. Cheryl draws in smoke slowly, retaining it in her mouth for a relatively longer period than Ted, exhaling the smoke in an upwards direction with her head tilted slightly to the side, and, finally, extinguishing her cigarette in the ashtray. Ted inhales smoke abruptly, keeping the cigarette in his mouth for a relatively shorter period of time, blowing the smoke in a downward direction (with his head slightly aslant), and then extinguishing the cigarette by pressing down on the butt with his thumb, almost as if he were effacing or destroying evidence. (c)
Q:
During World War II , physicians encouraged sending soldiers cigarettes in ration kits. (c)
Q:
People will do something, even if it puts their lives at risk, for no other reason than it is interesting. Smoking in moderndaysocieties makes courtship interesting. A colleague of mine once quipped that semiotics can be defined as the study of “anything that is interesting.” (c)
Q:
Take Salem cigarettes as a case in point. In the late 1990s the makers of the cigarettes created an abstractly designed package, imitative of symbolist or expressionist style. The company mailed out a sample package along with four gift packages—a box of peppermint tea, a container of Chinese fortune cookies, a bottle of mint-scented massage gel, and finally a candle—throughout the country. Each package came with a coupon for a free pack of cigarettes. The package’s new design, along with the occult nature of the gifts, were designed to impart a mystical aura to the cigarettes. It is no coincidence that the name of the brand itself is suggestive of the occult. (c)
Q:
However, in a fascinating book, Valerie Steele has argued that we are all fetishists to an extent, and that the line between the “normal” and the “abnormal” in sexual preferences and behaviors is a blurry one indeed. Fashion designers, for instance, steal regularly from the fetishist’s closet, promoting ultra-high heels, frilly underwear, latex suits, and the like. The appropriation has been so complete that people wearing such footwear, garments, and apparel are generally unaware of their fetishist origins. (c)
Q:
When we instinctively pose the question of what something means, in effect, we are engaging in basic semiotic thinking. In addition, as mentioned, we find this interesting. Semiotics constitutes a “questioning form” of investigation into the nature of things that is not unlike the type of reasoning used by detectives, fictional or real-life. In fact, detective stories are really semiotic investigations in disguise. This is probably what makes them so popular. (c)
Q:
Confucius (c. 551–479 BCE) wrote: “Signs and symbols rule the world, not words or laws.” (c)
Q:
The computer has also introduced a new form of text-making and text-usage
known as hypertextuality . Reading a printed page is, at the level of the signifier (that is, of deciphering the actual physical signs on the page), a linear process, since it consists in decoding the individual words and their combinations in sentences in the framework of a specific signification system (a novel, a dictionary, and so on). Information on any specific sign in the printed text must be sought out physically: for example, if one wants to follow up on a reference in the text, one has to do it by consulting other printed texts or by asking people.
This is also what must be done when one wants to determine the meaning of a
word found in a text. Dictionaries serve this very purpose. The computer screen has greatly facilitated such tasks by introducing a hypertextual dimension. The term hypertext was coined in 1965 to describe an interlinked system of texts in which a user can jump from one to another. This was made possible with the invention of hyperlinks —portions of a document that can be linked to other related documents. By clicking on the hyperlink, the user is immediately connected to the document specified by the link. Web pages are designed in this way, being written in a simple computer language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). A series of instruction tags are inserted into pieces of ordinary text to control the way the page looks and these can be manipulated when viewed with a Web browser. Tags determine the typeface or act as instructions to display images, and they can be used to link up with other Web pages.
As opposed to the linear structure of printed paper texts, hypertextuality permits the user to browse through related topics, regardless of the presented order of the topics. The links are often established both by the author of a hypertext document and by the user, depending on the intent of the document. (c)
May 30, 2016
We can know ourselves today only by knowing how we got here.
It took me all nearly-200 pages of this book to figure out that essentially, it was a case study in the same analytical skills I'd already honed in two years of AP English courses and four years of liberal arts undergraduate education. Objects and actions have meaning beyond their apparent surfaces: gee, shocker! Except... not so much. This was kind of old hat.
That said, it still gets three stars for a couple of reasons. One, it's approachably written; the case study format makes for a good introduction into what semiotics is and what it can do, and allows Danesi to explore a broad variety of topics in a fairly short book. Two, the subject is an important one; I acknowledge that I'm a bit biased due to my educational background, but I firmly believe that everyone should learn to look for deeper influences in the media they consume, and this is a great place to start. And three, Danesi closed the book with a digression into talking about the nature of the human spirit in a way that really resonated with me, and pointed out the utility of semiotics in seeking deeper understanding of the cultures in which we live.
It has some significant weaknesses, however. It's overtly Western-focused, for one, and makes very little mention of comparisons of signs and symbols between cultures, where I felt like there was room for richer demonstration of the relevance of semiotics. Additionally, it was published 17 years ago, so a lot of its cultural references are out of date - your mileage may vary on whether or not this is a significant problem, as the principles demonstrated still apply, but it makes the reading a little strange. And lastly, some issues are simply glossed over. The film "Birth of a Nation" is mentioned as being 'controversial', which is... true, but downplays the fact that what it was, was Klan propaganda. Obviously Danesi wasn't writing a polemic here, but it seemed odd to brush past that, especially when discussing film and history.
Still, if you're interested in exploring the idea of semiotics, this seems like a solid starting point.
Want to read
November 15, 2007Heh. I wrote a paper in college on the semiotics of smoking. One of my fervent non-smoking friends read it and said I can't believe I'm saying this, but this really makes me want to have a cigarette. Don't worry, though, he didn't.
November 11, 2007
This is a great book about semiotics (study of signs) there are some very intersting chapters on High Heels and why women wear them, and how other things are seen as sexual even though "we" may not be intending to exude sexuality.
August 31, 2020
Well this was the first e-book I read and I think the subject matter lent itself to such a medium.
This is as it says an introduction to semiotics and it does a good job of outlining the thinking behind it. It is straightforward and readable and while only an introduction does not skimp on detail were required. It has piqued my interest and I may well read more on this subject.
This is as it says an introduction to semiotics and it does a good job of outlining the thinking behind it. It is straightforward and readable and while only an introduction does not skimp on detail were required. It has piqued my interest and I may well read more on this subject.
Read
January 13, 2021I don't know what rating to give and what review to write. I was not intruded by opening few chapters of the book. It stayed in my shelves for few months but I didn't have courage to pick it up and finish the book. Maybe someday I will come back to this book but for now it has been in my Goodreads reading list for too long.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2020
Introducción amena y con ejemplos a la semiótica. No es un manual, donde se van presentando los temas sistemáticamente, sino una presentación de las cuestiones principales de la semiótica a través de un ejemplo transversal al libro. Recomiendo si lectura para familiarizarse con el tema.
December 8, 2020
This book has been a true companion of mine the past few days. Although am new to the world of Semiotics, it did do a good job of capturing and maintaining my attention. The little details were not well elaborated and many a times i had to dive deep on my own looking around for case studies ….
January 5, 2021
Found it underwhelming at best
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2022
Quite well-written, but it did not contain too much of new insights.
February 18, 2025
A list of interesting anecdotes and fun historical facts around the symbols of daily life and their meanings. Unfortunately it is wrapped in too many vague banalities. Annoying to read.
partially-read
July 2, 2016I only stopped reading this one because I was going through it in small chunks and had renewed it from the library several times already..
Very interesting.. makes you stop and think about all actions and thoughts and expectations and behaviour and why that is the norm for today.
Looked into history and development of trends / behaviour / appearance etc, and comparison of cultures.
Only slightly irritating thing was that it didn't delve too deeply into explanations - I feel I have to do a lot of my own research looking into case studies that were mentioned or cultural differences, since things were summed up in a sentence where I wanted a more thorough account.
Very interesting.. makes you stop and think about all actions and thoughts and expectations and behaviour and why that is the norm for today.
Looked into history and development of trends / behaviour / appearance etc, and comparison of cultures.
Only slightly irritating thing was that it didn't delve too deeply into explanations - I feel I have to do a lot of my own research looking into case studies that were mentioned or cultural differences, since things were summed up in a sentence where I wanted a more thorough account.
Want to read
November 14, 2007I'm already interested in semiotics thanks to my philosophy and lit theory classes, so I can only hope that this book won't disappoint.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews