Available via online booksellers and the IGS store
Not A, Not Be, &c is not just another collection of essays on general semantics. Not that it is not exactly that, a collection of essays on general semantics specifically, and on what Neil Postman described as general semantics writ large, aka media ecology. This colorful collection of essays, complete with illustrations and indexes, cover topics related to human communication and the human condition, the contrast between alphabetic and electronic cultures, a new tree of life model, understanding different types of symbolic form (i.e., words, images, and numbers), problems and possibilities regarding the copula and conjunctions, the nature of imagination, and coping with and changing the world we live in.
Not A, Not Be, &c is a wonderful intellectual playground. Strate crafts complex systems of ideas into a delightful landscape that will be a joy for any curious mind to roam.
Lera Boroditsky, Professor of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego
In this cryptically titled collection of essays, Strate shows how word play is a serious matter, maps are creative as much as accurate, and logic is often misleading. Despite the initially opaque title, the writing is clear and the argument compelling, demonstrating how language and media are central to the human condition. The book explains and extends upon the insights of Korzybski and general semantics and McLuhan and media ecology, tracing their influence and showing their contemporary relevance.
Chris Chesher, Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures, University of Sydney
Not A, Not Be, &c invites you to rethink the very constructs that shape our understanding of existence, communication, and human potential. Strate challenges conventional thinking, guiding readers through a nuanced examination of symbolic communication, the limitations of language, and the profound impact of our conceptual frameworks on reality.
Heather Maloney-Stassen, Founding Dean, College of Arts, Sciences, & Education, Daemen University
Lance Strate reveals the relevance of general semantics for readers familiar with and new to the field and identifies its link with media ecology. Along the way, Strate establishes how the non-Aristotelian character of general semantics suits the speed and connectivity of our "E" world. The pages are packed with references to ancient wisdoms, scholarly insights, adages of public intellectuals, and pertinent practices of cultural icons-we meet Popeye indexed alongside Plato, Lady Gaga next to Alfred Korzybski himself. The text unsettles conventions, applying the disruptive energy of general semantics to show there is always more: etc. or "&c." Once you read this book, you won't hear the phrase "it is what it is" the same way-schooled by Strate to adopt Korzybski's perspective where nothing is definitive, and more is resident and forthcoming.
Jaqueline McLeod Rogers, Professor & Chair, Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Communications, University of Winnipeg
Lance Strate is without a doubt our foremost thinker and writer about general semantics and media ecology, and how these two thought systems are so wholly interconnected and overlapping. In this bold collection of essays, he again seeks to move our understanding a great leap forward with respect to what we know about both systems, and with his extensions of what Korzybski, McLuhan, Postman, Bateson, Ong, and so many others, as his giants, have taught us. With each superbly written chapter, he reminds us how his endeavor is nothing more and nothing less than understanding the nature of our human experience as the languaging and symbol-making species.
Thom Gencarelli, Professor of Communication, Sound & Media Arts, Manhattan University
Table of Contents
About the Author
Prolegomenon (Not Not An Introduction)
Acknowledgements
Index of Proper Names
Subject Index
References
Part 1 Not A
Chapter 1 If Not A, Then E
Chapter 2 Word, Image, Number
Part 2 Not Be
Chapter 3 It Is What It Isn't
Chapter 4 Figments of a Fragment, or Fragments of a Figment
Part 3 &c
Chapter 5 So You Want to Change the World? A Hitchhiker's Guide to Subversive Thinking
Chapter 6 The And