(Ebook) Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things by Marcel Danesi ISBN 9781349953479, 9781349953486, 1349953474, 1349953482

(Ebook) Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things by Marcel Danesi ISBN 9781349953479, 9781349953486, 1349953474, 1349953482

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 workbehind 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.