I'm sorry, I'm spamming. I'll stop after this one, promise.

[adiva_calandia]

Guys. This is insane. I seriously absorbed some basic semiotic theory at a very young age.

How, you ask? Simple.

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,' it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'

'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all.'

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. 'They've a temper, some of them - particularly verbs: they're the proudest - adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs - however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!'

'Would you tell me, please,' said Alice, 'what that means?'

'Now you talk like a reasonable child,' said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. 'I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life.'

'That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

'When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'I always pay it extra.'

'Oh!' said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.

THAT'S SEMIOTICS. The meaning is arbitrary, and okay, Humpty Dumpty is directly contradicting Saussure by choosing the meaning of words himself, technically only a group can do that, but that's basically semiotics. The signified -- "we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next" -- and the signifier -- "Impenetrability!" -- have nothing to do with each other, except that someone has decided they do, and thus they create a sign.

GUYS. THIS IS INSANE. Charles Dodgson laid out the basics of semiotic theory forty-five years before Saussure. And thousands of children read it and are only somewhat aware of how MIND-BLOWINGLY COOL IT IS.

WHAT.

. . . Okay, I'm going back to reading now. ¬_¬ Good Lord, I am a geek.

Comments

[genarti]

...I love you, Adiva.

[avariel-wings.livejournal.com]

...seconded.

[batyatoon]

So totally thirded.

*hugs*

[newredshoes]

*cheerful!* Jon Spencer went to Brown to study semiotics!

Why yes, I do have a one-track mind, why do you ask?

[adiva_calandia]

*cracks UP* Awesome.

[newredshoes]

*replies, belatedly, with the more appropriate icon*

[ashen_key]

Your Geekery is a thing of beauty, Adiva.

[gramarye1971]

Right, that's it. At some point before the month is out, I'm totally getting you a copy of The Name of the Rose, and possibly a copy of Kant and the Platypus.