symbol sourcebook reading

so i got a copy of Dreyfuss's Symbol Sourcebook from the 60s out of the library bc I want to marinate in the theory/examples of it as I develop my own magic & system symbols (I bought a copy years ago but I have NO idea where it's gotten to and I refuse to let that stop me)

and it's fascinating to me how obsessed they were with developing a "universal" way to communicate, while baking in certain very specific ideas to their "universal" symbols

this asshole Charles K. Bliss is SO SELF CONGRATULATORY ABOUT HIS SHITTY SYMBOLS

"The great Leibnitz dreamed 300 years ago that someone will some day invent a Universal Symbolism, [...] Now eminent scholar have agreed that I have just done this." DO they, charles.

"But the symbols above belong only to Aspect 1 of my work. The other 4 aspects are even more fascinating." ARE THEY, CHARLES. (Spoiler alert: they are not; for example, "Aspect 5: the biochemical discovery that cells act ethically in all creatures.")

Cause like, fun fact, he has a symbol for man, and a symbol for woman, but no symbol for person. DIDNT COUNT ON ME EXISTING, DID U CHUCKIE BOY!!! Not so universal after all!

Actually that's probably too generous, as aspect 3 is "a simple semantics which could help even children to recognize (and avoid) those dangerous words by which demagogues and dictators in the homes and nations threaten the peace of mankind" and also "Cannibalism and war began with new stone age man by the introduction of dangerous words." Excluding people like me from his symbology is probably not an accident

I hate when I'm reading something genuinely interesting about documentation or classification and then it just takes a sudden turn into "Oh wait, you're probably a eugenicist at heart huh"