MM on "Bob" and your butt in 1952
purple
MM wrote this a year and a half before the first issue of EXPLORATIONS came
out and before many Americans owned television sets:
"Aesthetically the newspaper creates an impact of immediacy and of
super-realism. Metaphysically its mode is existential. Its impact is that of
the very process of actualization. The entire world becomes, in this way, a
laboratory in which everybody can watch the stages of an experiment." - H.
M. McLuhan, Technology and Political Change, International Journal,
Volume 7, p.191, Summer, 1952.
"And by way of abating some of the dread most people feel towards the power
of mass communications at present it might be well to consider how with
radio or the mechanization of human speech, the hustings and the forum have
given way to the round table and face-to-face discussion in the presence of
small audiences. Also, with television has come a weakening of the magic and
myth of the movie 'star.' It appears that the intimacy and immediacy of the
flexible television camera and screen are much less favourable to the star
system than the movie camera and its giant screen on to which are poured
such dreams as money can buy." - H. M. McLuhan, Technology and Political
Change, International Journal, Volume 7, p.195, Summer, 1952.
The Great Bob Dobbs
polar bear
<pur...@tellurian.com> wrote:
I wonder what M would make of half the western world wandering about
with little telephones stuck to the side of their head while the other
half tunes them out with little i-pods stuck in their ears?
Used to be, you knew a guy was crazy when you saw him walking along
talking to himself. Nowadays, he's probably on the cutting edge of
hands-free digital communication.
The Mighty Polar Bear