Guernica Magazine

Semiotics Has Never Been More Thrilling

Laurent Binet’s latest novel is a great big joke, and a crash course in literary theory. The post Semiotics Has Never Been More Thrilling appeared first on Guernica.
Image: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Theory heads and lit lovers, have you ever wanted to get into the Da Vinci Code only to be deterred by the bad writing, shoddy research, and the possibility that someone might see you reading it? Have you noticed that Dan Brown’s protagonist is a “professor of symbology,” then complained to your friends, when they asked if you’d like to join them for a screening of Inferno, that there is no such field? Have you pulled your hair out wondering why Dan Brown seems never to have heard of semiotics?

Have you dreamed of a better world, where such a globe-trotting conspiracy novel might feature your favorite continental theorists front and center? Have you wondered what would happen if Noam Chomsky and Camille Paglia got high and made out at a Cornell frat party? If you’ve answered yes to any or all of these questions, then is the book for you. Not since Jeffery Eugenides’s has a book of commercial literary fiction

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