Marshall McLuhan said that the written word is an abstraction of an abstraction that separates us from the thing itself. So if you see the word pineapple, you must decode the letters to get to the sound of the word, one abstraction, then you must decode the sound of the word to get to the meaning of pineapple: two abstractions. All of this dealing with letters and words, makes us abced minded he says. The word is not the thing. Cat got your langue?

Discussion Question: Why is semiotics important in Understanding Media?

This way lies madness which reminds me of a silly joke:

A Japanese (say) young man goes on an airline for the first time. After a while the flight attendant comes along and says to him: beef or chicken? His English is not so good so he repeats the phrase over and over to himself: beeforchicken, bee fore chicken. Suddenly he says to the attendant: eggu.