Customer Reviews

Everyman's McLuhan

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Certainly one of the more important minds of the 20th century was Marshall McLuhan, a man whose grappling with the new technology of his time produced often quoted but rarely genuinely understood 'philosophy'. The reliable Wikipedia defines it well: 'In The Mechanical Bride, McLuhan turned his attention to analyzing and commenting on numerous examples of persuasion in contemporary popular culture. This followed naturally from his earlier work as both dialectic and rhetoric in the classical trivium aimed at persuasion. At this point his focus shifted dramatically, turning inward to study the influence of communication media independent of their content. His famous slogan, "the medium is the message" (elaborated in his 1964 book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man) calls attention to this intrinsic effect of communications media.... at the empirical level of consciousness, the medium is the message, whereas at the intelligent and rational levels of consciousness, the content is the message'. And that is about as concise a definition of McLuhan's influence to be found...until now.

This extraordinarily well-designed (McLuhan would most assuredly approve!) new book is an exploration of the influence of McLuhan by McLuhan's official biographer W. Terrence Gordon. In the colorful pages (ah, media influence!) designed by Eri Hamaji, Gordon, along with writer Jacob Albert, gives us quotes, the 'terminology', explanations, examples, and a genuine understanding of McLuhan's massive influence not only on the media, but also on the thinking of contemporary man. It is presented with wry wit, integrating visual with written information, and maintaining the position that McLuhan's at times obtuse observations are now available to the general minds of McLuhan's 'global village'.

Once again Buzz Poole and his staff have created a book that integrates design with important information. In this handsome volume there is intellectual enhancement and visual excitement that will reward the reading public, hungry to understand the important minds that shaped our present. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, November 07

It's is certainly a very timely and respectable notion for Mr. Gordon and the others who worked on this book to set themselves the task of making Marshall McLuhan a more accessible figure to the 21st century. Quite a few other authors have taken up the same torch, and Gordon himself has several other McLuhan books in addition to this one, including a biography and a guide for beginners to McLuhan. One of McLuhan's heroes, James Joyce has probably had at least fifty books written about him for every book he wrote himself, and with scientific progress, the mass acquisition of information and our fascination with technology all gaining more momentum every day it's possible that one day Marshall McLuhan may match him. That is, assuming people still read books as we know them in the coming decades.

I bought this book a year ago as a complete newcomer to McLuhan and had no problem finishing it in about two days. The book is formatted in the style of a giant magazine article, right down to the glossy pages and fold out illustrations. It's an interesting idea, especially considering it's subject matter, but somehow the end result felt like an insufficient container for a thinker this complex. The concepts and ideas the author presents are often made more clear by the illustration, but just as often the text suffers from the brevity required to intertwine with them. This book may be a better choice for someone already somewhat familiar with it's subject, who could use it more as a kind of daily McLuhan devotional. It's full of quick sections, slogans and jargon it either doesn't have the space or just doesn't feel the need to break down. The first sentence of the book states that it's "intended as a primer and a guide to readers wanting to explore the writings of Marshall McLuhan", so my main issue is that it failed me on that front. Coming back to it a year later after having read quite a bit more about the man on the web, as well as a couple other books, I found it more interesting and easier to navigate, but now full of abbreviations that were only fleshed out in other books.

On the pro side, it's likely to make an excellent conversation starter. The illustrations are often quite clever when put into the context of McLuhan's ideas, and did find myself at times opening my eyes in a new way to images I'd seen a thousand times on the street, on a computer or on a television. It's also probably a book that McLuhan himself would have liked, provided he found his ideas well represented. He loved doing different kinds of books, collaborations and exploring new methods of presentation.

In short, this will make you a fine coffee table book, but if you want something that does more than just graze the surface you may want to look toward one of the biographies or the collection of McLuhan's letters, which includes many very interesting correspondences( Ezra Pound, Wyndam Lewis, Walter Ong, and others). From there the best place to go is to McLuhan's own work.