Words

"words offer the means to meaning, the enunciation of truth" -V for Vendetta

symbols, labels, pictogram, logo...
they all represent one or more ideas which enabling us to understand things easily
and to communicate.

however good this quote is (i really like it), but if you look at this quote without the context, it is not comprehensive enough.
it is never possible to present an idea as a whole in just one sentence or two without the context...
(when you want to make it complete, some of the idea will be likely to contradict with one another, but when the contradicting idea put together side by side, they make a complete or full picture about an idea)
if i just look at this quote, from my view, yes words indeed offer the means to meaning and it is a vehicle of thoughts and idea. But it does not mean that it represents truth. words can be deceiving. may it be words that is written for the eyes or to the ears. they can be written in the way to persuade one to believe. and persuasion is the art of making one into believing what is more right than the other.

with the context, what this quote say can be seen as "listen to my words, as my words will reveal the truth that is hidden" this quote is quite ironic because it can be used by both the deiceiving side and the side who is telling the truth.

and let's take a look at the context...
what about this movie?

V for Vendetta is a movie which basically talks about a fascist regime takes the whole country (of Britain) and has its people under control by manipulating the emotions of the people. It gained its dictatorship by winning the trust of its people that its reign can eliminate all deaths, pain and suffer. the ultra conservative party Norsefire played upon the deeply divided country, trying to gain in power, until a terrorist released biological weaponry attack to the public.. but in actual fact the party held responsible for the attack, by releasing biological weaponry against the public, they promote themselves as saviour and won the election. Soon after the election, the virus ceased. The government used the fear of the public to its advantage, and to achieve that, it uses media to strengthen the nation's believe to the government.

"strength through unity, unity through faith" is the slogan the fascist government keeps repeating whether on posters, banners, or through media. what the ruling party tried to implant into the nation's mind is "believe me and you will be safe from all of the tortures and pain and misery. Media plays a great role in this movie as even though it is under total control of the ruling party, V (the so called terrorist) who is the only person brave enough to stand against the government, ironically triumph over the ruling party by using the media against the party itself.

V, is a freedom fighter who uses terrorist tactics in pursuit of a personal vendetta but all he wanted to do is to force the authoritarian government out of Britain. he gained victory in the end, through the unity of the nation to stand up against the cruel regime, to end all oppression and injustice.

the greatness about this movie is that all the forceful ideas that the fascist regime trying to implant to the nation, can actually be used against the government itself. for instance, the slogan. with the sense of unity, and faith, believe that the nation can really end the regime.
this is indeed a good movie... highly recommended.

this is not a pipe.

This is a famous painting by Rene Magritte called "The Treachery of Images." Magritte's caption says, (in French) "This is not a pipe."

Interesting eh?

this illustrates Magritte's point, which is simply that an image or sign of a thing is not the thing itself. One could make the same point with any number of images, signs, and symbols. Magritte's point is a simple one, so simple that we usually don't think about it. But precisely because we don't think about it, because we forget that the signs and symbols all around us are just that, signs and symbols, and not things themselves, we can come to take for granted, take as "natural," aspects of life that are anything but. we have to become aware that the names and labels are just names and labels. They represent the signified but they are not the signified. when you see a tree, you say that is a "tree". "Tree" is the signifier to signify the plant that has branches with big trunk to support it, so that plant is a signified.

Some labels and its meaning changes due time. These days semiotics serves as a very useful set of tools for identifying many of the formal patterns that work to make meaning in many aspects of our culture, particularly the media. Media constantly bombarded us with media messages with many symbols and signs that in order to identify and make meaning from them, we have to know at least how semiotics works. A particular advertisement would have its own ways of presenting its product, so we cannot simply just "see" an advertisement, we have to "read" the advertisement: the graphic, the lay out, the colours, the supporting elements, etc.

Try to read every advertisement that comes your way, it will give you more fun whenever you flip through the glossy mags as you can interpret meanings from them rather than just looking at them.