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Paul Cobley, ""

Product Description:

An animal's cry, language disorders, the medical "symptom," and body language are all signs of semiotics.

Summary: Good intro for critical readers

Rating: 5

This book is superb for people who can see the difficult sides and implications of various semioticians and their claims. It, at first glance, seems very abstract and poorly done, but all the elements needed to grasp the concepts are present. I am ambiguous about how to rate this book, however, since I realize that it is not a good book for every one who wants a good introduction to the subject, which should be crystal clear and very well-organized. If you read carefully though, the author seems to have woven some elements of semiotics he discusses into the book itself (with the help of the indeed brilliant illustrator, might I add). And you can read between the lines to fully explore all the hidden meanings the author has planted in the text, so I ended up giving it a full-rating. I recommend this book highly to anyone who loves the art of reading and loves interacting with text in depth.

Summary: Vague, skeletal and insufficiently explanatory

Rating: 2

This book claims to be an introduction, and it claims to try to simplify the subject matter, but it fails. In any introductory text, simplification is essential, which means that certain things must be left out or condensed. However, if too many important concepts are oversimplified or edited out completely, the book fails to achieve its stated goals. This is the case in "Introducing Semiotics."

For example, early in the book, the author discusses Peirce, one of the fathers of semiotics. He introduces terms such as immediate, dynamic and final interpretant; representamen, firstness, secondness and thirdness. He even places them in charts and tables to show correlations between these concepts. The problem is that he never defines these terms well enough, and never gives examples of how they operate in real life. This makes them virtually incomprehensible, and, paradoxically, makes the entire subject seem too abstract and complex for the layman to understand. This is the antithesis of what a book like this should do; it should make a subject like semiotics approachable, interesting and relevant. The book fails to do so. A much better introduction that is easy to read and understand is "This Means This, This Means That: A User's Guide to Semiotics" by Sean Hall. This Means This, This Means That: A User's Guide to Semiotics

Summary: A splendid place to start!

Rating: 5

Introducing Semiotics does just that, it INTRODUCES the topic, head thinkers, facets of thought, etc., to the reader (one would assume the reader a casual one, not brought to reading this by a graduate course). It is a fair and thorough evaluation of what semiotics IS and what it IS NOT. It does everything I believe it sets out to do, and it is a great read for everyone, even one who already has a firm grasp on the topic. I recommend it most highly.

Summary: Not a cohesive introduction

Rating: 1

While I found another of this series clear, informative, and entertaining, entitling this work Introducing Semiotics is a misnomer. This work does not serve well for someone hoping to gain an introduction to semiotics which will provide a basic framework to build on.

Though the author does introduce us to key figures in the development of semiotics and gives the reader some idea of the relationships between them - a useful list for further study - the main theme is not coherently presented.

The book reads much more like a very loosely ordered collection of snippets from lecture notes or casual discourses between semioticians planning on writing a book. Topics are interleaved and skipped between in at best a partially constructive manner. Often ideas are introduced in a way that seems like we're joining their discussion midway through. The level of technical jargon is high and the writing style showcase's the author's extensive vocabulary without an equal capacity to bring the terms and ideas into a simpler, working summary with straightforward examples. And many of the examples that are included tend to obscure than clarify the topic.

The illustrations are interesting and give the page layout a welcoming feeling which the text unfortunately does not support. I would look for another book if you want a useful introduction to semiotics.

Summary: Non-intimidating introduction to a complex field

Rating: 4

"Introducing Semiotics" aims to provide a taste of the study of signs and the theories that have grown from it in the 20th century. It identifies key theorists from either side of the atlantic and tries, -sometimes unsuccessfully- to explain the simple concepts behind difficult terms. Charles Pierce's thinking is still over my head, for instance, but I'm admittedly slow on the uptake sometimes.

Lacan's Lectures on Technique may continue to languish unread on my shelf, but maybe I can stop being lazy now, because this introduction has made him less intimidating. This is partly due to Jansz's illustrations - plucky and surprising in the often abstract matter they portray.

"Introducing Semiotics" has given me a taste for communication theory, and made me want to pick up Eco again, so all in all, it's good.

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Rating:
2.5 out of 5 by Book123