The Empire of Signs, by Roland Barthes (Richard Howard (Translator))
Mind-tickling. Not About Japan (four stars)
(Review posted 21 Oct 1999 12:12:12)

(Copied from an old review originally posted elsewhere.)

An interesting, thought-provoking, pre-PostModern piece about sign and symbol, meaning, surface and interior, and all that sort of thing. An exploration of how else a culture might be, riffing off of the West's image of Japan, but not really about Japan at all.

Worth a read. Short and almost mythical. Reminds me somehow of Hesse's "Journey to the East", but probably not for any very good reason.