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Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work! Hardcover – November 30, 2010

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Atlas; 1 edition (November 30, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1935633163
  • ISBN-13: 978-1935633167
  • Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 0.1 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 29 people found the following review helpful By Thomas J. Farrell on January 15, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Douglas Coupland (born 1961), the prolific Canadian novelist, has written a short book about the life and thought of the Canadian Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980).

Coupland's MARSHALL MCLUHAN: YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT MY WORK! was originally published in Canada as EXTRAORDINARY CANADIANS: MARSHALL MCLUHAN, one book in the series of short books about extraordinary Canadians.

The subtitle of the American version of the book is taken from McLuhan's cameo appearance in Woody Allen's 1977 movie "Annie Hall." In the movie a pretentious academic holds forth about McLuhan's thought. But McLuhan himself emerges to tell the academic, "You know nothing about my work." Great put-down, eh?

Coupland believes that McLuhan's thought may be more important today than it was in his own lifetime, because computers and the Internet have given new meaning to McLuhan's expression the "global village."

Some younger people might not know much about Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980). Later this year, McLuhan fans will mark the 100th anniversary of his birth. But who was McLuhan, and why is he important today?

With the publication of two books in the early 1960s, THE GUTENBERG GALAXY: THE MAKING OF TYPOGRAPHIC MAN (University of Toronto Press, 1962) and UNDERSTANDING MEDIA: THE EXTENSIONS OF MAN (McGraw-Hill, 1964), McLuhan catapulted to extraordinary fame, seemingly out of nowhere. In the 1950s he had not been widely known. However, he had been known to a small group of alert admirers. But along with his fame in the 1960s and 1970s came controversy and criticism. At times, the criticism was cogent and convincing. However, the criticism directed at him was frequently off target. In any event, many of his critics wanted to throw out the baby with the bath water, as we say.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful By Martin Zook on June 1, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Marshall McLuhan, somewhere, is getting quite a chuckle out of Douglas Coupland's biography of the prophet of the digital age, if only because Coupland's imaginative recounting has refashioned the typographical media of the book (a keystone subject of McLuhan's work) to reflect the impact of the digital media on its aging ancester.

The result is a format that is far more engaging and immensely more informative than the voluminous biographies that dominate the genre today. The biography, more than anything else, clearly demonstrates what McLuhan meant when he wrote: "The medium is the message," in Understanding Media, his study of electronic media as it swallowed print. In that study, McLuhan pointed out that media would be forced to adapt to emerging media, or face annihilation. As an example, he pointed to two print products launched during the golden age of TV, a time when the p.m. newspaper was being wiped off the face of the planet by the disruptive electronic media. Life magazine and MAD magazine thrived because their formats reflected the influence of television's picture oriented format. Life's photos, and MAD's woodcut-like illustrations benefited from complementing the new media's format.

And, so it is with Coupland's biography of McLuhan, who prophesized the Internet 50 years ago, give or take.

The book's format of short chapters, similar to blocks of type on the Internet, direct writing typified by short declarative sentences, conversational style, with sections and chapters broken up by pages lifted from the www network, and quotes from McLuhan, demonstrate how books will change as a result of the Internet's dominance.

It's for better or worse, depending upon the eye of the beholder.
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Format: Hardcover
Douglas Coupland has written a small, well researched biography of one of the most complex social theorists of the last 50 years. Marshall McLuhan has fascinated readers since the early 1960s with his often elegant yet explosive theories on mass communication and media. He has also aggravated many with other stunningly complex and seemingly meaningless theories. Much of the time these same readers are confused about which is which.

If you've never read McLuhan but would like to, this is an excellent place to start because Coupland presents an accessible overview of all of McLuhan's work. Coupland cleverly integrates meaningful media ephemera into a relatively straight forward biography. He is very aware of McLuhan's hallmark theory that the mode of delivery (in contemporary society) is more important than the content and he tries to present that in an interesting way through simple text. What is weird is you are not really sure if McLuhan himself would have hated or loved this book.

Coupland also presents easy to digest summaries of the major works of McLuhan's lifetime. A simple search turns up numerous offerings with McLuhan's name on them, but the vast majority of his media philosophy can be digested from two of his major works, the incredibly dense The Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Although most of his other works can be rewarding, they don't have the same impact as these two blockbusters.
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