Roland Barthes – Empire of Signs (mp3)

This is beautiful, enduring stuff. Unlike, I feel obliged to assert, most of the other structuralists and post-structuralists whose work I soaked up as an eager photography student in the eighties (my fellow students will laugh at my use of the word ‘eager’. Let them). Barthes was a kind of poet and the writings collected for Empire of Signs are dazzling. Also a kind of model for the generations of less poetic, wise-guy anthropo-journalists that have followed (visit city, draw ambitious conclusions from observations of what’s on the telly in the hotel, write an article for a Sunday supplement). And there’s a bit about felt-tip pens.

There are some nice second-hand copies of this edition of Empire of Signs on Amazon.