Semiotics for Beginners

Context is a quarterly publication intended to create a historical and cultural context in which to

read modern and contemporary literature. Its goal is to encourage the development of a literary

community.Its latest issue has several dense but thoughtful articles, among them a description by Curtis White of the cultural criticism of George W. S. Trow. Trow’s “real contribution to the

genre is a very persuasive ability to determine

when a social formation is alive and dominant, and when it is dead….Trow argues that for the last fifty years the

United States, at the height of its world dominance and authority, has been caught in a

process of persistent social devolution that has left us with a world dominated by television

and the likes of David Letterman. It is a world emptied of all honor and truthfulness, and

whose only depth is the abysmal depth of self-reflection and ‘ironic self-contempt.’ ” Along the way, he has a very interesting analysis of the failure of the ’60’s counterculture, which he calls “vitalitarianism” insofar as he sees its central force to be the opposition to the “creeping catatonia” of television and the tabloids. In its wake, it left “our moment, …isolated, utterly lacking context, illiterate, illiberal, empty

of useful information, narcissistic,

and incapable of a single serious moment. That’s our post-Reagan, Clinton-in-ascendance,

cultural dominant. And damned if I know why Trow is wrong to say so.” Perhaps caught up in the ironic spirit, White wonders why, “…if Trow has a

brilliant grasp of when a ‘cultural aesthetic’ is alive and when dead (and he does), how is it

that he could, for thirty years, make these critical and intellectually lively distinctions from

within something that is itself dead?” He is referring to Trow’s career as a staff writer for the New Yorker, which White makes a point of explaining why he does not read (he doesn’t find the cartoons funny, among other reasons).

Plants show their bright side. A leading biologist warns us to underestimate the intelligence of plants at our peril. Telegraph

Stop Smiling, Start Griping: Why gloom is good for you ‘…Pessimism and negativity may have their

advantages. Curmudgeons may cope better than those who

succumb to the “tyranny of the positive attitude”. ‘ Telegraph

Compounds Also Present In Alcoholic Beverages May Explain Chocolate Cravings. ‘A Spanish researcher has a new clue to what motivates “chocoholics”:

a group of chemicals that might contribute to the good feelings

associated with binging on the tasty treat. The finding is reported in the

current (October 16) issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food

Chemistry… The researchers are the first to find that ordinary cocoa and chocolate

bars contain a group of alkaloids known as tetrahydro-beta-carbolines,

according to Tomas Herraiz, a researcher at the Spanish Council for

Scientific Research in Madrid, Spain. In previous research, the same

chemicals were linked to alcoholism, he said. The family of

compounds, which are also known as neuroactive alkaloids, continues

to be investigated for possible influences on mood and behavior.”

Effect of death of Diana, Princess of Wales on suicide and

deliberate self-harm . “The death of the Princess of Wales in 1997 was followed by widespread public mourning. Such major events may influence

suicidal behaviour. To assess the impact of the Princess’s death on suicide and deliberate self-harm (DSH), analysis of the number of suicides and open verdicts (‘suicides’) in England and Wales following the

Princess’s death compared to the 3 months beforehand, and the equivalent periods in 1992-1996, and similar analysis on DSH presentations to

a general hospital, revealed that suicides increased during the month following the Princess’s funeral by approximately 17%. (The author concludes that) the death of a major public figure can influence rates of suicidal behaviour. For DSH, the impact may be immediate, but

for suicide it may be delayed.” British Journal of Psychiatry

Lawyers Plan Slave Reparations Suit

A powerful group of civil rights and class-action lawyers who

have won billions of dollars in court is preparing a lawsuit

seeking reparations for American blacks descended from slaves.

The project, called the Reparations Assessment Group, was confirmed by Harvard law

professor Charles J. Ogletree and appears to be the most serious effort yet to get American

blacks compensated for more than 240 years of legalized slavery. Lawsuits and legislation

dating back to the mid-1800s have gone nowhere.

“We will be seeking more than just monetary compensation,” Ogletree said. “We want a

change in America. We want full recognition and a remedy of how slavery stigmatized,

raped, murdered and exploited millions of Africans through no fault of their own.”

Ogletree said the group, which includes famed attorney Johnnie Cochran, first met in July

and will hold its fourth meeting in Washington D.C. later this month. AP

Lawyers Plan Slave Reparations Suit

A powerful group of civil rights and class-action lawyers who

have won billions of dollars in court is preparing a lawsuit

seeking reparations for American blacks descended from slaves.

The project, called the Reparations Assessment Group, was confirmed by Harvard law

professor Charles J. Ogletree and appears to be the most serious effort yet to get American

blacks compensated for more than 240 years of legalized slavery. Lawsuits and legislation

dating back to the mid-1800s have gone nowhere.

“We will be seeking more than just monetary compensation,” Ogletree said. “We want a

change in America. We want full recognition and a remedy of how slavery stigmatized,

raped, murdered and exploited millions of Africans through no fault of their own.”

Ogletree said the group, which includes famed attorney Johnnie Cochran, first met in July

and will hold its fourth meeting in Washington D.C. later this month. AP

Lawyers Plan Slave Reparations Suit

A powerful group of civil rights and class-action lawyers who

have won billions of dollars in court is preparing a lawsuit

seeking reparations for American blacks descended from slaves.

The project, called the Reparations Assessment Group, was confirmed by Harvard law

professor Charles J. Ogletree and appears to be the most serious effort yet to get American

blacks compensated for more than 240 years of legalized slavery. Lawsuits and legislation

dating back to the mid-1800s have gone nowhere.

“We will be seeking more than just monetary compensation,” Ogletree said. “We want a

change in America. We want full recognition and a remedy of how slavery stigmatized,

raped, murdered and exploited millions of Africans through no fault of their own.”

Ogletree said the group, which includes famed attorney Johnnie Cochran, first met in July

and will hold its fourth meeting in Washington D.C. later this month. AP

Celluloid Visions Are What Dance in My Head. “No matter how many

good baking and roasting

smells waft through the house or apartment, no matter how

old-fashioned and bountifully decorated the Highland Fraser

fir, no matter how many halls are decked with boughs of

holly and how many carols about merry gentlemen and lords

a-leaping are sung, my Christmases will always have a tragic

flaw. They’re not taking place in England.

These expectations are primarily the fault of the 1951 British

film version of A Christmas Carol, directed by Brian

Desmond-Hurst and starring Alastair Sim as a sympathetic if

rather bug-eyed Ebenezer Scrooge. Mr. Scrooge’s clerk, Bob

Cratchit, may be poor, but the holiday dinner at his house is

the epitome of Yuletide merriment.”

Pollution News Update: First, Supreme Court to Consider Air Pollution Rules. In what is considered the most important environmental case since the adoption of the Clean Air Act 30 years ago, business groups who have failed to get Congress to gut environmental regulations ever since are taking their appeal for relief to the Supreme Court, attempting to argue that the EPA is overstepping its regulatory authority. Because newly promulgated regulations tighten up air pollution standards further at great cost to polluters, industrial concerns are attempting to reverse the principle that environmental regulations can consider health effects without regard to cost-benefit analysis. And: What’s This About Cultural Pollution? “Popular culture is getting more and more juvenile, and

the serious arts, or what used to be the serious arts, often emulate popular culture,

depressingly. But we can be disappointed in our arts without being made coarser as a society.

There’s a difference. Why as a nation do we periodically presume that society is coarsened by

culture? That’s the real question.” Although of course it’s not one or the other, I think the

argument is stronger that the degradation of culture is not a cause so much as an effect of

societal decay. Serious artistic expression seems to me to have lost the power to shape the

zeitgeist. A heroic, thoughtful artist can hope at best to reflect, and reflect upon, it. New York

Times

Lawyers Plan Slave Reparations Suit

A powerful group of civil rights and class-action lawyers who

have won billions of dollars in court is preparing a lawsuit

seeking reparations for American blacks descended from slaves.

The project, called the Reparations Assessment Group, was confirmed by Harvard law

professor Charles J. Ogletree and appears to be the most serious effort yet to get American

blacks compensated for more than 240 years of legalized slavery. Lawsuits and legislation

dating back to the mid-1800s have gone nowhere.

“We will be seeking more than just monetary compensation,” Ogletree said. “We want a

change in America. We want full recognition and a remedy of how slavery stigmatized,

raped, murdered and exploited millions of Africans through no fault of their own.”

Ogletree said the group, which includes famed attorney Johnnie Cochran, first met in July

and will hold its fourth meeting in Washington D.C. later this month. AP