Special Issue General Semantics and Media Ecology Edited by LANCE STRATE No. 12, 2020-21 (Autumn) PUBLISHED BY BALVANT PAREKH CENTRE FOR GENERAL SEMANTICS & OTHER HUMAN SCIENCES BARODA Anekaant: A Journal of Polysemic Thought is published twice a year (Autumn and Spring) by Balvant Parekh Centre for General Semantics and Other Human Sciences, Baroda, India. Its objective is to engage with ideas emanating from the discipline of General Semantics, and from other disciplines under the broad rubric of the human sciences. As the human sciences include several areas of thought and their application, the range of the Journal’s coverage is both open-ended and inclusive. It provides a forum for a dialogue among both scholars and non-scholars on topics of contemporary relevance that have some bearing on our everyday reality. Articles submitted for possible publication in the Journal must be written in a style devoid of academic jargon so that they are easily intelligible to general readers. It will also have a book-review section, where books related to the areas of the Journal’s concerns will be discussed. Guest Editor Lance Strate Managing Editor Tonisha Guin Submission Guidelines We accept manuscripts for the general issues throughout the year. For special issues, the theme and the deadline for sending the articles will be published in the Journal and on Balvant Parekh Centre’s website. Manuscripts should be of 4500-7000 words. For research papers, please use the latest MLA style. Author’s name should appear on the cover page only. Please email your submissions in MS Word Format and address your queries to the Managing Editor ([email protected]). Please attach an abstract (300 words), keywords and a brief bionote of the author (100 words) with the submission. All submissions to the journal will be evaluated by a team of referees. Those articles which receive favorable comments will be published. Subscription Rates (for two issues) Institution $25 Overseas; ` 500/- India Individual $15 Overseas; ` 300/- India Balvant Parekh Centre for General Semantics and Other Human Sciences C-302, Siddhi Vinayak Complex, Faramji Road, Behind the Railway Station Baroda-390007, Gujarat, India Ph:+ 91 265-2320870 www.balvantparekhcentre.org.in ANEKAANT: A JOURNAL OF POLYSEMIC THOUGHT No. 12, 2020-21 (Autumn) Special Issue General Semantics and Media Ecology Contents INTRODUCTION Lance Strate 5 ETC: A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS: THE NEIL POSTMAN YEARS Thom Gencarelli 7 THE DARK SIDE OF COHERENCE Bill Petkanas 29 CONTEXTUALIZING MONUMENTS AND MOVIES: ICONOCLASM THROUGH THE LENSES OF MEDIA ECOLOGY AND GENERAL SEMANTICS Eva Berger 35 TEACHING THE HUMAN ARTS: MEDIA ECOLOGY AND GENERAL SEMANTICS Michael Plugh 39 THE NEW GRAMMARIANS Lance Strate 47 THE LINGUISTIC TURN IN GENERAL SEMANTICS, MEDIA ECOLOGY, AND PRAGMATISM Zhenbin Sun 65 ALPHABETIC LITERACY AND PRE-REFLECTIVE MEANING: PHENOMENOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF EGO Corey Anton 79 MAPPING THE TERRORTORY OF MEDIA ECOLOGY: A FEMPOETICS Adeena Karasick 89 LIVING AND DYING AT THE EDGE OF DREAM Ed Tywoniak 93 SELECTIONS FROM DIATRIBAL WRITES OF PASSAGES IN A WORLD OF WINTERTEXTUALITY Lance Strate 105 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 111 Anekaant: A Journal of Polysemic Thought, No. 12, 2020-21 (Autumn) Special Issue – General Semantics and Media Ecology INTRODUCTION LANCE STRATE In 2009, I was a guest of the Balvant Parekh Centre for General Semantics and Other Human Sciences, and gave an address and a series of talks at the Centre’s First National Workshop. Stopping in Mumbai on the way to Baroda, I met with Balvant Parekh himself, and I consider myself quite fortunate to have had that opportunity. And I was delighted to learn that Balvant’s interest in general semantics began by way of reading ETC at the time that Neil Postman was editing the journal. I studied under Postman, I explained, in the Media Ecology Program at New York University, where I earned my doctorate. The connection deepened, as Balvant shared with me the various reprint anthologies that he had produced, which reflected a wide-ranging set of intellectual interests, and an expansive view of general semantics that connected it to the context of other human sciences, chief among them, I would add, being media ecology. Postman had introduced media ecology to a general semantics audience as general semantics writ large, perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but certainly reflecting the understanding that media ecology, as a field of study, includes and incorporates general semantics. Media ecology scholars continue to acknowledge the contributions of Alfred Korzybski, S.I. Hayakawa, Wendell Johnson, and others associated with general semantics, the common ground between media ecology and general semantics has been the subject of recent scholarship (Anton; Anton & Strate; Strate, On the Binding; Media Ecology), and remains open for further investigation. Korzybski made it clear that general semantics was one of many possible non-Aristotelian systems, and it is clear that media ecology is characterized by a non-Aristotelian orientation (although it would be best understood as a field of inquiry and an approach, rather than a system). General semantics is in large part concerned with human environments, with the neurolinguistic and neurosemantic environment (Korzybski) or more simply, the semantic environment (Johnson). Media ecology is also concerned with human environments, and therefore the human condition (Strate, Media Ecology), with media environments, the terms medium and environment being synonyms, and this includes the symbolic environment, the technological environment, and the biophysical environment. The term medium, as it is used in the field of media ecology, represents a much broader category than in any other universe of discourse, and can encompass language in general and languages specifically, symbols and codes, art and all manner of form, and even sense perception, sensory organs, the nervous system, and the body, not to mention the environment itself. Korzybski’s key concept of abstracting is more of less interchangeable with the media ecological concept of mediating. And both general semantics and media ecology intersect and incorporate various other fields, disciplines, philosophies, and theoretic orientations, including linguistic relativism, symbolic interactionism, relational psychology and communication, information theory, cybernetics, systems theory, autopoiesis, chaos and complexity, Thomism, pragmatism, phenomenology, modern languages and literary studies, 6 Anekaant: A Journal of Polysemic Thought orality-literacy studies, the interdisciplinary study of time, etc. The articles collected in this special issue are neither the first word on the subject, nor the last. Rather, they are a stepping stone, carrying inquiry forward, and clearing the path for further study. Thom Gencarelli, the current editor of the journal ETC, provides an appropriate starting point with his article, “ETC: A Review of General Semantics: The Neil Postman Years,” a discussion of Postman’s tenure as editor of the journal, and the circumstances and significance as a bridge between general semantics and media ecology. Another former editor of ETC, Bill Petkanas, follows with the “The Dark Side of Coherence,” demonstrating the important relevance of general semantics and media ecology together in understanding contemporary culture and politics. Next is Eva Berger, who applies general semantics and media ecology to contemporary American controversies regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, and efforts to remove statues commemorating the Confederacy, in her article, “Contextualizing Monuments and Movies: Iconoclasm Through the Lenses of Media Ecology and General Semantics.” Education is a core concern of general semantics, which Korzybski intended to be a teachable system, and media ecology, with leading scholars such as Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, and especially Neil Postman being at the forefront of discussions regarding the nature and purpose of schooling, and educational reform; Michael Plugh tackles this subject with his contribution, “Teaching the Human Arts: Media Ecology and General Semantics.” My own contribution is entitled, “The New Grammarians,” and discusses the connection between Korzybski and McLuhan in the context of grammar, reaching back to the ancient and medieval notion of grammar as the study of language and literature. This is followed by Zhenbin Sun’s philosophical discussion, “The Linguistic Turn in General Semantics, Media Ecology, and Pragmatism.” From pragmatism to phenomenology, Corey Anton brings a philosophical orientation to the study of writing and the literate mindset in his article, “Alphabetic Literacy and Pre-Reflective Meaning: Phenomenological Considerations of Ego.” Adeena Karasick follows with, “Mapping the Terrortory of Media Ecology: A FEMPOETICS,” a probing and poetic feminist exploration of the intellectual landscape, guided by Kabbalistic hermeneutics. The last essay takes us down under to Australia, to consider the relationship between identity and environment in light of ecological crisis, in “Living and Dying at the Edge of Dreams,” by Ed Tywoniak. Finally, given the shared interest in language and literature evident among general semanticists and media ecologists, I provide a selection of six poems reprinted from my 2020 anthology, Diatribal Writes of Passage in a World of Wintertextuality: Poems on Language, Media, and Life (But Not As We Know It). WORKS CITED Anton, Corey. Communication Uncovered.