When I’m walking the dog, I’ll sometimes stop and gaze at a manhole cover — transfixed by its circular design, so reminiscent of a G-schema. Within a manhole cover’s circle, what manner of grid, latticework, reticulation, plexus, graticule, or decussation is suggested?

This particular manhole cover— with its eight sections, created by a “cross” and an “x” — closely resembles the G-schema. (Though there is no inner circle bifurcating my schema’s eight sections.) Unlike a G-schema, which is seemingly impermeable, asphalt has leaked into some parts of this schema from outside its borders. Other parts are asphalt free, or almost so.

Are some sections of any given semiosphere more “permeable” (vis-à-vis the wider universe of meaning) than others? Yes, that would make perfect sense. But how to show this via a schema?

A selection from a series of posts — originally published by our sister website, HILOBROW — attempting to depict the intellectual and emotional highs and lows of developing a semiotic schema.