Comments on: McLuhan/The Medium is the Massage

McLuhan/The Medium is the Massage

carter — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 08:13:05 -0800

The Medium is the Massage [mp3s]. Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian Professor of English Literature who coined phrases such as "the medium is the message" and global village in the 1960s, and who talked about coming global connectivity, saw media such as the printing-press and television as changing not only the information we received, but the ways in which we understand information and the world. His publishing style often involved the collection and juxtaposition of quotations and observations in a ways that were fast and cut-up, including collage and typographic experiment, and a sound collage lp released in 1967 which sounds as if it was recorded today.

By: sam and rufus

sam and rufus — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 08:25:27 -0800

Thank you. This is great.

By: RockCorpse

RockCorpse — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 08:28:31 -0800

Mmmmm....Swedish or Shiatsu?

By: mendel

mendel — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 08:52:13 -0800

For the record, "massage" isn't a typo.

By: carter

carter — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 09:25:30 -0800

According to here, originally it was a typesetting error that McLuhan decided to keep, because it was thought-provoking.

By: RockCorpse

RockCorpse — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 09:27:13 -0800

Gotcha. Full release?

By: gorgor_balabala

gorgor_balabala — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 10:23:03 -0800

It seems that McLuhan's take on media is a counterpoint to Guy Debord's theories, which basically cast new media as having an evil and degrading effect on intellectual life, that their basis in capital and in power renders their tribal effects null and void, an artificial life that is part asleep. McLuhan's ideas are a challenge to the primacy of printed media (cum diebold). Is he right? Or is he just a media puppet whose intellectual arguments are nothing more than another means to persuade us away from true tribalism and into a pseudotribal culture of broadcast mass manipulation?

By: njm

njm — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 11:47:30 -0800

Very cool, thanks carter.

By: davebush

davebush — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:10:15 -0800

Terrific post, carter. Thanks tons.

By: petebest

petebest — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 13:54:13 -0800

"The artist . . . the enema of society" Heh.

By: gorgor_balabala

gorgor_balabala — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 15:52:05 -0800

petebest, who are you quoting? and why?

By: MiltonRandKalman

MiltonRandKalman — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:42:41 -0800

McLuhan—The Patron Saint of Wired magazine... oh Wired, how you've strayed.

By: petebest

petebest — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 07:19:33 -0800

gorgor_balabala: it's on the second .mp3 in the FPP

By: gorgor_balabala

gorgor_balabala — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:44:03 -0800

oh...i guess the why part is mostly answered... i only wish i could ask "them".