Lance Strate
New York Metropolitan Area
August 26, 2009
The Meaning of Meaning
The Meaning of Meaning
balanced on a ladder
afraid to climb
about to fall
I met an angel coming down
a better angel
than I had known before
I lifted my arms
to shield my head
as the angel pummeled me
I took the blows
could not fight back
prayed for an end to pain
prayed to become as stone
and drop to the earth again
and then
this
is what
the angel
tolled
to me:
you know,
the meaning of meaning is meaning
it's an inclination, a leaning
it's an angle, will you take the bait?
hurry now, or you might be late!
About
A Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City
Executive Director of the Institute of General Semantics
Founder, Past President, and Board Member of the Media Ecology Association
Board Member of the New York Society for General Semantics
Past President of the New York State Communication Association
Author of Echoes and Reflections: On Media Ecology as a Field of Study
Co-editor of several anthologies including Legacy of McLuhan, and
Communication and Cyberspace: Social Interaction in an Electronic Environment
Supervisory Editor of the Media Ecology Book Series Published by Hampton Press
Parent of an Autistic Child and Advocate for Autism Awareness
Member of the Board of Trustees of Congregation Adas Emuno
owner of a Boston Terrier
etc.
Final exam time for my Intro to New Media class, and back to the old, old medium of the handwritten essay
updated 5 days ago
General Interests
Communication, conversation, elaboration, observation, meditation, contemplation, deliberation, education, investigation, documentation, publication, creation, exploration, experimentation, speculation, imagination, fascination, emancipation, inspiration, illumination, exhilaration, translation, circulation, dissemination, information, siginification, explanation, interpretation, classification, relation, celebration, consideration, illustration, decoration, preparation, cultivation, generation, innovation, elevation, congregation, association, cooperation, collaboration, civilization, administration, habitation, reputation, sensation, vibration, fermentation, inhalation, aviation, gratification, animation, automation, technologization, quotation, donation, equation, vegetation, punctuation, pronunciation, abbreviation, transportation, destination, location, agitation, integration, accumulation, duration, narration, commemoration, preservation, salutation, confirmation, congratulation, commendation, coronation, affirmation, admiration, acclamation, adoration, revelation, transformation...
Some Folks I Admire
Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, Walter Ong, Lewis Mumford, Susanne Langer, Jacques Ellul, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stanley Kubrick, Charlie Chaplin, Martin Buber, Elie Wiesel, Isaac Luria, Albert Einstein, Liviu Librescu, Akiba ben Joseph, Elijah, Moses and Frodo Baggins, Spider-man, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Tom Seaver, Art Shamsky, Ron Swoboda, Tug McGraw, Willis Reed, Larry Csonka, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Paul Simon, Peter Yarrow, Harry Chapin, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman, Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rodney Dangerfield, Mel Brooks, Number Six, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, John Cleese, all of the Firesign Theatre, Ian Anderson, Frankenstein from Death Race 2000, Harpo Marx, Bugs Bunny, Tobor the 8th Man, Will Robinson, Charlie Brown, Benjamin J. Grimm, and the list goes on...
Favorite Comics Creators
Favorite comics creators include Alan Moore, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Scott Adams, Geoff Johns, Art Spielgelman, Gardner Fox, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Sergio Aragonés, Grant Morrison, Julius Schwartz, Paul Levitz, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Charles Schulz, Gary Trudeau, Burke Breathed, Bill Watterson, George Herriman, Walt Kelly, Fred Hembeck, Doug Rushkoff, and the list goes on...
Favorite Poets
Favorite poets include J.R.R. Tolkien, Leonard Cohen, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Hunter, Jerry Harp, David Sobelman, Homer, Ovid, William Shakespeare, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll, Emma Lazarus, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edward Lear, Julia Ward Howe, Robert Forst, W. H. Auden, Maya Angelou, and the list goes on...
Favorite Fiction Authors
Favorite fiction authors include J.R.R. Tolkien (#1), Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, Herman Hesse, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Gene Wolfe, Mary Shelley, Karel Capek, Edward Bellamy, Dan Simmons, Stanislaw Lem, Madeleine L'Engle, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, J. K. Rowling, Umberto Eco, Tom Wolfe, Dom DeLillo (Fordham alum!), Marleen Barr, Andrew Postman, Chuck Wachtel, Paul Levinson, Doug Rushkoff, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, Mark Helprin, E. L. Doctorow, Harlan Ellison, Dr. Seuss, Margaret Wise Brown, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Lewis Carroll, Norton Juster, Edwin A. Abbott, Lemony Snicket, A. E. van Vogt, Orson Scott Card, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard
Some Folks I Admire
Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, Walter Ong, Lewis Mumford, Susanne Langer, Jacques Ellul, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stanley Kubrick, Charlie Chaplin, Martin Buber, Elie Wiesel, Isaac Luria, Albert Einstein, Liviu Librescu, Akiba ben Joseph, Elijah, Moses and Frodo Baggins, Spider-man, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Tom Seaver, Art Shamsky, Ron Swoboda, Tug McGraw, Willis Reed, Larry Csonka, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Paul Simon, Peter Yarrow, Harry Chapin, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman, Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rodney Dangerfield, Mel Brooks, Number Six, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, John Cleese, all of the Firesign Theatre, Ian Anderson, Frankenstein from Death Race 2000, Harpo Marx, Bugs Bunny, Tobor the 8th Man, Will Robinson, Charlie Brown, Benjamin J. Grimm, and the list goes on...
Favorite Comics Creators
Favorite comics creators include Alan Moore, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Scott Adams, Geoff Johns, Art Spielgelman, Gardner Fox, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Sergio Aragonés, Grant Morrison, Julius Schwartz, Paul Levitz, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Charles Schulz, Gary Trudeau, Burke Breathed, Bill Watterson, George Herriman, Walt Kelly, Fred Hembeck, Doug Rushkoff, and the list goes on...
Favorite Poets
Favorite poets include J.R.R. Tolkien, Leonard Cohen, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Hunter, Jerry Harp, David Sobelman, Homer, Ovid, William Shakespeare, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll, Emma Lazarus, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edward Lear, Julia Ward Howe, Robert Forst, W. H. Auden, Maya Angelou, and the list goes on...
Favorite Fiction Authors
Favorite fiction authors include J.R.R. Tolkien (#1), Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, Herman Hesse, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Gene Wolfe, Mary Shelley, Karel Capek, Edward Bellamy, Dan Simmons, Stanislaw Lem, Madeleine L'Engle, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, J. K. Rowling, Umberto Eco, Tom Wolfe, Dom DeLillo (Fordham alum!), Marleen Barr, Andrew Postman, Chuck Wachtel, Paul Levinson, Doug Rushkoff, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, Mark Helprin, E. L. Doctorow, Harlan Ellison, Dr. Seuss, Margaret Wise Brown, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Lewis Carroll, Norton Juster, Edwin A. Abbott, Lemony Snicket, A. E. van Vogt, Orson Scott Card, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard
Favorite Nonfiction Authors
Favorite nonfiction authors: Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, Walter Ong, Lewis Mumford, Susanne K. Langer, Jacques Ellul, Dorothy Lee, Harold Innis, Eric Havelock, Daniel Boorstin, Walter Benjamin, Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf, Norbert Wiener, Gregory Bateson, Margaret Mead, Jack Goody, Edmund Carpenter, Camille Paglia, Jay David Bolter, Joshua Meyrowitz, Paul Levinson, Doug Rushkoff, Tony Schwartz, Susan Sontag, Ivan Illich, Denise Schmandt-Besserat, Elizabeth Eisenstein, S. H. Steinberg, Niklas Luhmann, Paul Watzlawick, Erving Goffman, Kenneth Gergen, Kenneth Burke, Alfred Korzybski, Wendell Johnson, S. I. Hayakawa, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fritjof Capra, Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Jacob Neusner, Lawrence Kushner, Albert Einstein, Moses et al., and the list goes on...