A series exploring the media “input” of a group of people — our commercial semiotician colleagues, from around the world — whose “output” we admire.

New York…

SEMIOVOX

What work of literature (old or new) would you recommend to someone trying to make sense of today’s world?

MARIE LENA TUPOT

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo (1939) or Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954). Those stories have haunted me since junior high, in the very best way. It’s particularly curious that Lord of the Flies has been challenged on banned book lists more often than Johnny Got His Gun.

But recently, my mother’s occupational therapist sent me The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973). Understanding the characters in Johnny Got His Gun and Lord of the Flies helped me see more clearly the roles the proverbial “we” take in the world. Omelas, though, unsettled me differently. I’ve come to see myself among those nameless figures who walk away not because I don’t understand, but because I do. And now I find myself in a perpetual search for an end that justifies the means. That’s a chilling realization, actually.

It’s not enough to understand the evolving world at large, but where am I in all “this?” Johnny Got His Gun helped me understand and relate to my dad’s perceptions of warring after coming out of the US Navy. Lord of the Flies helped me understand what the heck was going on during those early teen years and now. Omelas pushes me deeper into the now that is right in front of me. To that end, never hesitate to share a story that’s weighing heavy on you. Someone else is feeling it too.

SEMIOVOX

What’s the best movie you’ve ever seen?

MARIE LENA TUPOT

The silent film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans by F.W. Murnau (1927). I first watched it when I was newly married in the early ’90s. You might call that choice nostalgic. But nostalgia isn’t what’s at play.

Yes, I’ve always been drawn to the pre-Depression era, an era I adore, not out of sentimentality, but because of the way it lived in my grandmother’s stories. That world was her coming of age, and she relayed it to me so vividly. At 16, she had run away from home to be with my grandfather. It was etched into my imagination. But even still, that’s not why Sunrise stayed with me.

What holds onto me is this: I’ve never been able to reconcile whether I’m Team Wife or Team Woman. Growing up as a suburban kid attending college in a metropolis, I’ve always had a foot in both places. That duplicity of tension between the two female archetypes shouldn’t have to feel like it should be a choice. They’re within every woman in some form, I think.

And that’s where the real fracture lies: not in choosing good or bad, but in the expectation that one must choose at all. If I had to choose between saint or siren, I would want to end my story altogether. It can really make one completely overthink archetyping exercises.

SEMIOVOX

How do you use social media, these days?

MARIE LENA TUPOT

Ancestry has evolved into a unique form of social media for me over the past few years. Initially, I used it simply to input and organize the extensive family notes I had collected over time. Gradually, it became much more than a digital archive. It became a dynamic space where I cross-reference public records and keep my extended family informed about our shared history. What makes it particularly relevant is how our family’s immigrant background intersects with current social and political conversations. My grandparents came to the United States in the 1920s, one side from the former Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) and the other from Sicily. Their stories offer real-life context when navigating today’s debates around immigration and nationalism. I often return to these personal histories to stay grounded and to fact-check or counter misinformation. Interestingly, there’s also a lighter side to this exploration. Despite their vastly different backgrounds, every generation before me, on both the “fire” and “ice” sides of the family, has had brown hair (consistently identified as chestnut by Ellis Island) and blue eyes. It’s a silly reminder of a shared genetic legacy, but it gives me a sense of continuity amid so much present-day turmoil. We get through things.

MEDIA DIET: GIANLLUCA SIMI (Brazil) | HIBATO BEN AHMED (France) | MARIE LENA TUPOT (USA) | EUGENE GORNY (Thailand) | YOGI HENDLIN (Netherlands / USA) | INKA CROSSWAITE (Germany / South Africa) | SÓNIA MARQUES (Portugal) | ĽUDMILA LACKOVÁ BENNETT (Czechia) | BRIAN KHUMALO (USA / South Africa) | JIAKUN WANG (Shanghai) | FRANCISCO HAUSS (China / Mexico) | ASHLEY MAURITZEN (England) | STEFANIA GOGNA (Italy) | BECKS COLLINS (England) | ANTJE WEISSENBORN (Germany) | MARIANE CARA (Brazil) | VICTORIA GERSTMAN (Scotland) | MALCOLM EVANS (Wales) | COCO WU (Singapore / China) | JOSH GLENN (USA) | JENNIFER VASILACHE (Switzerland) | ANDREA BASUNTI (England) | SARAH JOHNSON (Canada) | PAULINA GOCH-KENAWY (Poland) | MARTHA ARANGO (Sweden).

Also see these global semio series: MAKING SENSE (Q&As) | SEMIOFEST SESSIONS (monthly mini-conferences) | COVID CODES | SEMIO OBJECTS | COLOR CODEX | DECODER (fictional semioticians) | CASE FILE | PHOTO OP | MEDIA DIET.