Umberto Eco Semiotics Quotes & Sayings

Semiotics is a general theory of all existing languages ... all forms of communication - visual, tactile, and so on ... There is general semiotics, which is a philosophical approach to this field, and then there are many specific semiotics. — Umberto Eco

Semiotics is in principle the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie. If something cannot be used to tell a lie, conversely it cannot be used to tell the truth: it cannot in fact be used "to tell" at all. — Umberto Eco

The good of a book lies in its being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs, which in turn speak of things. Without an eye to read them, a book contains signs that produces no concept; therefore, it is dumb. — Umberto Eco

As a scholar I am interested in the philosophy of language, semiotics, call it what you want, and one of the main features of the human language is the possibility of lying. — Umberto Eco

[A TV commercial] crossed my desk in 1986. It came with a press release boasting about an enormous production budget employed in service of what it termed a communications "breakthrough". The secret of this particular breakthrough was the science of semiotics - i.e., conveying meaning via powerful symbols imbued with significance far beyond their literal interpretation. It's the sort of thing that Jean Baudrillard and Noam Chomsky write about. Umberto Eco. Dudes like that. Dudes who have no responsibility for marketshare.

Whoa," I said to myself as I eagerly tore the videocassette out of its jacket. "This is gonna suck. — Bob Garfield