Sign After the X

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of education at the University of
Prince Edward Island and an honorary chief of the Lennox Island
Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island.

This book is a study of the signs, usages, and meanings of the grapheme
“X.” In contemporary culture, for example, X can imply sexuality and
violence, as in film and music ratings; it can also symbolize power
(e.g., Malcolm X) or mystery (e.g., X-Files). Marina Roy shows
considerable erudition in her subject, which covers such disparate
fields as language, literature, history, psychology, and philosophy. She
also shows considerable imagination in its presentation, using many
drawings to illustrate her text. (In addition to teaching fine arts at
the University of British Columbia, Roy is a painter, sculptor,
photographer, and printmaker who has exhibited her work nationally and
internationally since 1992.) The text is full of detail of intrinsic
interest. A preface, an introduction, and a useful series of endnotes
complete the work. Sign After the X leads readers to a heightened
awareness of how various are the ways in which X enters into our lives,
our understanding, and our culture.