Essays & ideas
Thinking about how meaning is made.
I'm T.W. Simpson. I study the machinery underneath communication — culture, narrative, semiotics — and write about what I find. This site is the home of my thinking. The things I build live elsewhere; the ideas live here.
Territory
01
Semiotics & meaning
How symbols, metaphors, and cultural logic make the world legible — and who gets to do the making.
02
Culture & narrative
The stories nations, industries, and movements tell — and the blind spots those stories produce.
03
Media & technology
What two decades around technology and media taught me about how discourse actually moves.
04
The Pacific frame
America and Taiwan, reading each other — often badly. The view from both shores.