Understanding Me: Lectures and Interviews [Paperback]

Marshall McLuhan (Author), Stephanie McLuhan (Editor), David Staines (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 2005

In the last twenty years of his life, Marshall McLuhan published a series of books that established his reputation as a world-renowned communications theorist and the pre-eminent seer of the modern age. It was McLuhan who made the distinction between "hot" and "cool" media. And it was he who coined the phrases "the medium is the message" and "the global village" and popularized other memorable terms including "feedback" and "iconic."McLuhan was far more than a pithy phrasemaker, however. He foresaw the development of personal computers at a time when computers were huge, unwieldy machines available only to institutions. He anticipated the wide-ranging effects of the Internet. And he understood, better than any of his contemporaries, the transformations that would be wrought by digital technology -- in particular, the globalization of communications and the instantaneous-simultaneous nature of the new, electric world. In many ways, we're still catching up to him -- forty years after the publication of Understanding Media.In Understanding Me, Stephanie McLuhan and David Staines have brought together nineteen previously unpublished lectures and interviews either by or with Marshall McLuhan. They have in common the informality and accessibility of the spoken word. In every case, the text has been transcribed from the original audio, film, or videotape of McLuhan's actual appearances. This is not what McLuhan wrote but what he said -- the spoken words of a surprisingly accessible public man. He comes across as outrageous, funny, perplexing, stimulating, and provocative. McLuhan will never seem quite the same again.The foreword by Tom Wolfe provides a twenty-first century perspective on McLuhan's life and work, and co-editor David Staines's insightful afterword offers a personal account of McLuhan as teacher and friend.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...[A] fast-moving and articulate public intellectual..." Michael R. Mosher Leonardo

"McLuhan comes across as outrageous, funny, perplexing, stimulating and provocative. How we need him now!" Umbrella

About the Author

Stephanie McLuhan is an award-winning television documentary producer. She lives in Toronto.

David Staines is Professor of English at the University of Ottawa.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (February 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262633175
• ISBN-13: 978-0262633178
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #82 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Letters & Correspondence

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spoken words to help the written, June 20, 2005

By 

Gordon Cieplak (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding Me: Lectures and Interviews (Paperback)

For anyone remotely interested in McLuhan, I recommend this book for the following reasons.
It is a much easier read than most of McLuhan's work, as it is a collection of interviews and speeches which are necessarily more concise, and were for me much more involving.
It gives an insight into McLuhan's theories which can be quite puzzling and abstruse at first. In his speeches and essays, he repeats his same themes in a variety of manners, which help to give the reader a better understanding of the theories.
It's no McLuhan for Idiots (I'm not sure if there is such a thing, based on the nature of his works), but it is definitely a very useful and enjoyable companion book.