Customer Reviews

The Bias of Communication

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I find everything I read by Harold Innis deeply thought provoking. Even when he quotes what I feel are wrong headed observations by Marcel Granet or Winston Churchill on character based langauges where I feel his conjectures reflect the fact he had never experienced learning such a language or thinking in one [instead of encouraging mental inflexibility, I would say, the contrary is true - 'lateral thinking' represented a concept I would never had had to introduce for any of my Chinese students], he feels so honest and so undogmatic, he is stimulating rather than irritating. [The passage occurs in 'A Plea For Time', one of the interesting essays in this book.]

He does not dogmatise but stimulates. He does not seek to preach but to help us participate in an ongoing process. In a way, he makes me feel, reading him, as I think a young Greek might have felt who had had the chance to spend time listening to Socrates.

I am very enthusiastic about this book and treasure my copy. I have become deeply interested in everything by Innis I can find.

This book and its ideas have stayed with me over 15 years since university : Innis (who influenced Mcluhan) discusses the effect of changes in media on the history of civilization : ex. the invention of papyrus. sometimes obscure, but always a paradigm-shifter