Hawkins
January Shamira 23, 2011
WRT 205: Homework
One Sentence Summary:
In The Perfect Icon for an Imperfect Postliterate World, Read Mercer Schuchardt
speaks of how the power of the textless icon, in an techonolgical global economy, can
lead to the replacement of language.
200 Word Summary:
Schuchardt speaks of how symbols were first used in order to draw a relationship
between words. This goes as far back as the followers of Christ who used the image of
the fish with spoken/ written word in order to form a connection between the two. From
that point in time we have progressed into forming advertisements with textless icons that
represent everything about a certain product without even speaking words. Before the
textless icon many companies faught deligently to make sure that their slogan was the
best, the wittiest, and the most memorable. However, it was until Nike came up with the
ingenious idea for an icon that would imbody the nike slogan. The symbol, check that is
infamously attatched to nike, almost subconsciously makes the swoosh sound if read
from left to right. When this discovery was made, it changed the world of advertising for
good. No longer does the global market economy try to find catchy slogans or jingles to
represent their product, now all they need is the right icon. Schuchardt paints a picture
that shows how these textless icons can lead to a world without language. If we are not
able to use language when looking at a million ads per day, then what can possibly be its
use? Essentially, by eliminating texts in their ads, they can then replace those words with
whatever they want and inadvertently form the mind into thinking and/or believing
whatever they want. From email to smiley icons the world has found a way to avoid the
most natural instances of a language, which now leaves us open to the influences of
multi-million dollar companies who look to alter our rational minds.