Of cigarettes, high heels, and other interesting things

In this volume, author Marcel Danesi shows us that the discipline that endeavors to understand the human quest for meaning is known as semiotics. He demonstrates how semiotics unravels the meanings of signs that make up the system of what we call a culture or a society. This book will engender in the reader the same kind of analytical and inquisitive frame of mind with which a semiotician approaches the subject matter of meaning.

Basic semiotic ideas and analytical techniques are introduced via a fictional - yet very telling - scene, one that reveals a lot about the human need for meaning. The scene is a fashionable modern-day restaurant, and the fictional actions that occur allow Danesi to provide the semiotic version of the human drama in concrete terms.