Code-X (66)

By: Joshua Glenn
May 27, 2015

Lexus LFA "supercar" — Lexus LFA “supercar”

Call this cultural code: Japanese Super-Deluxe.

Definition: An alluring Japanese object — to be coveted, hoarded, almost venerated.

Yoshihiro Mizuyaki knife

Notes on this code: Americans associate “Japanese-ness” with intense, appreciative connoisseurship for products — knives, cuts of beef, rare melons, even videogame consoles — that are often taken for granted elsewhere.

Neo-Geo super-premium videogame console

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SERIES INTRODUCTION | ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES

MORE SEMIOSIS at HILOBROW: Towards a Cultural Codex | CODE-X series | DOUBLE EXPOSURE Series | CECI EST UNE PIPE series | Star Wars Semiotics | Icon Game | Meet the Semionauts | Show Me the Molecule | Science Fantasy | Inscribed Upon the Body | The Abductive Method | Enter the Samurai | Semionauts at Work | Roland Barthes | Gilles Deleuze | Félix Guattari | Jacques Lacan | Mikhail Bakhtin | Umberto Eco

Categories

Codebreaking, Semiotics

Tags

codex, hilobrow-josh, Semionaut, semiosis, semiotics

See All Posts by Joshua Glenn

Josh Glenn, HILOBROW's editor, is a principal of the commercial semiotics agency Semiovox. He is co-author and/or co-editor of several books, including The Idler's Glossary, Significant Objects, and the bestselling family activities guide UNBORED. In the ’00s, Josh was a columnist and blogger for the Boston Globe's IDEAS section; in the ’90s, he published the zine/journal Hermenaut. He lives in Boston.