• Click here to download ETC 69:1 from the IGS Store.

Table of Contents Preview

• “Silent Cal and the Invisible Audience: the Sociotechnological Significance of the Presidential Voice” by James Eric (Jay) Black
• “Science Fiction Language/Political Reporting: Communicating News via Words from Nowhere Real” by Marleen S. Barr
• “No One Saw This Coming: Korzybski’s Concerns, Predictions, and Time-Binding Suggestions” by Milton Dawes
• “Indexing Africa” by Martin H. Levinson
• “Binding Places and Time: Reflections on Fluency in Media Ecology” by Karen Lollar
• “Twitter and the New Publicity” by Joseph Faina
• “Chronemics: Time-Binding and the Construction of Personal Time” by Tom Bruneau
• Metaphors in Action:
  “A Music Concert as a Metaphor” by Raymond Gozzi, Jr.
• “Probes: Homo Faber” by Peter Zhang
• Plus Book Reviews.

Cover Art

The cover of ETC 69:1 is a work titled “Golan Thorns” by Kyle Perler.

• Click here to view more art by Kyle Perler.

To nominate a book, send a letter of nomination and two copies of the book by August 31, 2012 to:

The Institute of General Semantics
72-11 Austin Street #233
Forest Hills, NY 11375

For more information, contact Martin H. Levinson, President of the Institute of General Semantics, via email at president (at) generalsemantics.org.

Click here for more information on the Hayakawa Book Prize.

“Language and Symbol Use in Politics and Other Arenas”

A 2-Day Symposium Sponsored by the Institute of General Semantics
October 26-28, 2012

Submission Deadline: September 1, 2012

The Institute of General Semantics is sponsoring the 2-day symposium titled “Language and Symbol Use in Politics and Other Arenas,” which will be hosted at The Princeton Club in New York City October 26-28, 2012. The symposium will feature the 60th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture, which will be given by Shawn Lawrence Otto.

Send papers, proposals, and inquiries on this year’s theme, “Language and Symbol Use in Politics and Other Arenas,” by September 1, 2012.

See the call for papers below for additional information.

• Click here to read the Call for Papers for the 2-day symposium titled “Language and Symbol Use in Politics and Other Arenas.”
• Click here for more information on the symposium and 60th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture.

Shawn Lawrence Otto

The 60th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture will be hosted at the Princeton Club in New York City on Friday, October 26th, 2011.

The 60th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecturer will be Shawn Lawrence Otto, author of the book Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault of Science on America.  More about Shawn Lawrence Otto can be found at http://www.shawnotto.com.

Click here for information on the 60th AKML and symposium.

Martin H. Levinson was re-elected for another term as President.  Corey Anton was elected the new Vice President, taking the place of Jacqueline J. Rudig, who was elected as the new Treasurer.  Vanessa Biard-Schaeffer was re-elected as Secretary.

Click here to view the current board of trustees, officers, and administration.

updated 11/7/2011

• New media producer and social marketer Aimée Davison’s presentation on Saturday has been posted to YouTube.  Click here to view the video and two videos related to her presentation.
• IGS Webmaster and Trustee Ben Hauck managed the Twitter feed for the symposium using his cell phone and the IGS Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/InstituteofGS). The event used the “#akml2011″ hash-tag.  People not in attendance for the symposium could follow along to bits of the presentation by following Twitter.

Click here for more roundup of the 2011 symposium.

About the Booklet

Debuting at the 59th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture in October 2011 as a gift to registrants, the 47-page booklet A Continuing Education Guide to Teaching General Semantics offers guidance for teachers interested in creating a course for students of general semantics.

Originally available in hard copy, A Continuing Education Guide to Teaching General Semantics is now available as a PDF.

Click here to download A Continuing Education Guide to Teaching General Semantics in the IGS Store.

Table of Contents

Lesson I: Science-Related Ideas for Effective Communication and Problem-Solving
Lesson II: Mental Maps—The Way to Better Planning and Prediction
Lesson III: Extensional and Intensional Orientations—How Real is Real?
Lesson IV: Non-Allness—No One Can Know All there is to Know About Anything
Lesson V: “Indexing”—Getting Closer to What is Really Going On
Lesson VI: “Dating”—We Live in a Changing World
Lesson VII: Two-Valued Orientations—The Limitations of Our “Either-Or” Language
Lesson VIII: Distinguishing Facts from Inferences—Language and Reality
Lesson IX: Nonverbal Communication—The Semantics of Silence
Lesson X: Signal-Symbol Reactions—Keeping Your Cool
Lesson XI: Increasing Semantics Awareness—The Structural Differential
Lesson XII: Asking Constructive Questions—Ones that Show an Extensional Orientation

About the Author

Martin H. Levinson, Ph.D., is the President of the Institute of General Semantics and the author of numerous articles and several books on general semantics and other subjects. His latest book is Brooklyn Boomer: Growing Up in the Fifties (2011).

Download the Booklet

Click here to download A Continuing Education Guide to Teaching General Semantics in the IGS Store.

The booklet is also redundantly available in the General Semantics Learning Center under Teaching Materials.

Click here to visit the Teaching Materials section of the General Semantics Learning Center.

Click here to download ETC 68:4 from the IGS Store.

Table of Contents Preview

• “The Spectacled Society: General Semantics and a Painters Process” by Dom Heffer
• “Corporate Identity Metaphor as Constitutive Discourse in Miniature: The Case of New China Life” by Peter Zhang
• “Appreciative Inquiry + General Semantics → IFD Disease Resistance” by Mary P. Lahman
• Poem:
  “Townsend Hell vs. Townsend Hall” by Lynn Chih-Ning Chang
• “My Culture Shock Experience” by Lynn Chih-Ning Chang
• Poem:
  “For A.K.” by Joseph Gold
• “Memorandum” by Bill Petkanas
• Five Poems:
  “Words Fail” by Heather Statz
  “The Right Question” by Heather Statz
  “Doublespeak” by Heather Statz
  “My Doublespeak” by Heather Statz
  “In a Sentence” by Heather Statz
• “Reading Korzybski through Nietzsche” by Zhenbin Sun
• “Language Power: Korzybski’s Interdisciplinary Methodology” by Blake Victor Seidenshaw
• “‘She Just Called You Honey’: My Quandary at Waffle House” by Brett Lunceford
• “The Oxford English Dictionary: A Time-Binding Marvel” by Martin H. Levinson
• “‘The Map Is Not the Territory It Represents’: Consequences on the Evaluation-Intervention Process” by Gérard Lavoie
• “The Teacher as Cultural Worker: Overlapping Insights from Sociology and General Semantics” by Mary Bachaspatimayum
• Metaphors in Action:
  “Is the Universe Information?” by Raymond Gozzi, Jr.
• Plus Book Reviews.

Cover Art

The cover of ETC 68:4 is a work titled “Society of the Spectacles II: The Sequel—in 4D!” by Dom Heffer.

Click here to view more art by Dom Heffer.

Click here to view the program for the weekend of events.

Click here to learn more about the weekend of events and to register.

About the Book

This intimate and detailed biography of the man whose popular book Language in Thought and Action is used as an introduction to general semantics for high-school and college students today draws on interviews with friends and family members, as well as S. I. Hayakawa’s own papers and journals, to bring this controversial and fascinating figure to life.

He was an enigma to colleagues as well as adversaries, a Republican senator who consistently bucked his party’s ideals with his support of the women’s movement, abortion rights, and even Ronald Reagan’s search for a female running mate. The son of Japanese immigrants, born and raised in Canada before moving to the United States, Hayakawa emerges here as a complex and complicated figure. His blend of heritage, politics, artistic inclination, and intellectual achievement makes him quintessentially American.

Click here to purchase In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa in the IGS Store.

About the Authors

Gerald W. Haslam is a professor emeritus of English at Sonoma State University and the author and editor of numerous books, including Workin’ Man Blues: Country Music in California, the novel Straight White Male, and the anthology Many Californias: Literature from the Golden State.

Janice E. Haslam is the coauthor, with Gerald W. Haslam, of the fiction collection Manuel and the Madman and An Instructor’s Guide to Many Californias.

Reviews

In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa traces the fascinating life of an iconic American writer, teacher, politician, and family man. In the process, authors Gerald W. Haslam and Janice E. Haslam tell us a lot about the culture wars of the 20th century—and of American identity itself. The authors’ many fans will be delighted by this definitive biography, as will students, scholars, and teachers of ethnic studies, California history, and American politics.

—Jonah Raskin
Author of American Scream: Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”
and the Making of the Beat Generation

Gerald and Janice Haslam are the perfect writers for this complete and superbly researched biography of S.I. Hayakawa, the teacher, poet, scholar, writer, flamboyant college president and Senator from California, who was always seeking more, not just for fame but for other, more personal reasons. Only the Haslams, with their unique perspectives, could know and tell this story.

—Clark S. Sturges
Author of Dr. Dave: A Profile of David E. Smith, MD,
founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics

Purchase the Book

Click here to purchase In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa in the IGS Store.