Hm, so instead of going right into the Prolegomena as my old frenemies Deleuze and Guattari would probably have recommended, I went for the volume desHm, so instead of going right into the Prolegomena as my old frenemies Deleuze and Guattari would probably have recommended, I went for the volume designed for the Danish layman. So as a result, it's got parts that sound like a freshman linguistics seminar, and other parts that constitute a bold (for the time, at least) iconoclastic vision of what linguistics could be, and of the first rumblings of semiotics before it joined with postcolonialism, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and critical theory to form the Captain Planet of the academic discourse. Also, it's a clear influence on Chomsky's concept of syntax, which makes me wonder why I've heard Hjelmslev name-checked by French poobahs but not from academic linguists. Anyone got an idea?...more
If I wanted to give an older person a primer on language and the Internet, this might be it. It helps that Gretchen McCulloch is about the perfect ageIf I wanted to give an older person a primer on language and the Internet, this might be it. It helps that Gretchen McCulloch is about the perfect age to write a text like this – old enough to have perspective, young enough to meme (unlike the regrettably common “how do you do, fellow teens” think piece). And she throws out excellent examples, stays intellectually honest, cultivates neither Silicon Valley optimism, nor National Review pessimism, and does a decent enough job at being funny (rarest of modes in academe). High fives all around....more
Gather 'round kids, it's time for a true story. When I was 20 or so, I ate a couple grams of magic mushrooms at my friend's apartment in the middle ofGather 'round kids, it's time for a true story. When I was 20 or so, I ate a couple grams of magic mushrooms at my friend's apartment in the middle of a blizzard, and thought "hey man, it's all metaphors. When people talk about physics or the stock market or whatever, that's like learning a system of metaphors."
This remains the nearest thing I've had to a psychonautic breakthrough, and it remains one I actually believe to this day.
George Lakoff had similar ideas, presumably sans psilocybin. And they're extremely, extremely applicable, complete with large-scale schema showing types of metaphor in the English language. For those who wonder why they just called someone "a total snack." ...more
