
Mythologies
"[Mythologies] illustrates the beautiful generosity of Barthes's progressive interest in the meaning (his word is signification) of practically everything around him, not only the books and paintings of high art, but also the slogans, trivia, toys, food, and popular rituals (cruises, striptease, eating, wrestling matches) of contemporary life . . . For Barthes, words and objects have in common the organized capacity to say something; at the same time, since they are signs, words and objects have the bad faith always to appear natural to their consumer, as if what they say is eternal, true, necessary, instead of arbitrary, made, contingent. Mythologies finds Barthes revealing the fashioned systems of ideas that make it possible, for example, for 'Einstein's brain' to stand for, be the myth of, 'a genius so lacking in magic that one speaks about his thought as a functional labor analogous to the mechanical making of sausages.' Each of the little essays in this book wrenches a definition out of a common but constructed object, making the object speak its hidden, but ever-so-present, reservoir of manufactured sense."--Edward W. Said
Reviews

Oscar Kömpel@oscarkoempel

aly eleanor@purityolympics

Prashanth Srivatsa@prashanthsrivatsa

əlizabəth@lydialunch

Sebastian Leck@sebastianleck

Tom Gregson@gregsonog

jack@statebirds

iamazoo@iamazoo

Will Vunderink@willvunderink

Vladimir@vkosmosa

MG@marilink

Mustapha Othman@rascality

GP@golp

Öykü@shostaninoff

Rebecca Bream@rebeccabream

Emma@emmabergeron12

Lula Diaz@luladiazf

lizbet koval@lizbetkoval

Celine Nguyen ✿@celinenguyen

Léa Beauchemin-Laporte@bethebluebook

Edyta@edyta

Amro Gebreel@amro

mersenne twister@mersenne