Review: The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects

The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects by Marshall McLuhan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I finally got around to reading the classic last night, and what was I waiting for? It is witty, insightful, and very entertaining. Much credit must be given to graphic designer [a:Quentin Fiore|14539|Quentin Fiore|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png]. His designs of the 1960s are mixed text and images, different sizes of type and other unconventional devices like mirror writing to create dynamic pages that reflect the tumultuous spirit of the time. In the words of critic Steven Heller, Fiore was "as anarchic as possible while still working within the constraints of bookmaking". McLuhan seems to be on a zealous mission to provoke the idea that conventional text ossifies the mind and these disruptive pages, many of which have little to no text, are as koans to break patterns of thought and challenge the reader. I especially like the quotes from [a:John Cage|47403|John Cage|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1236828378p2/47403.jpg] and William Massey:

“Whence did the wond'rous mystic art arise, / Of painting SPEECH, and speaking to the eyes? / That we by tracing magic lines are taught, / How to embody, and to colour THOUGHT?”

Not just 18th Century poets, but even the seminal Socrates is on McLuhan's side seeing deadly rigidity in a line of text:

"The discovery of the alphabet will create forgetfulness in the learner’s souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. You give your disciples not truth but only the semblance of truth; they will be heroes of many things, and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing."
— Socrates, Phaedrus, cited by Marshall McLuhan here

McLuhan then sounded like someone railing against 24-hr cable news, unedited blogs, and face-down tweeting:

"The family circle has widened. The worldpool of information fathered by the electric media—movies, Telstar, flight—far surpasses any possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world's a sage."

And what he resisted in the 60s make me think his head would explode now, or maybe now we will listen?

"Electric circuitry has overthrown the regime of ‘time’ and ‘space’ and pours upon us instantly and continuously the concerns of all other men. It has reconstituted dialogue on a global scale. Its message is Total Change, ending psychic, social, economic, and political parochialism. The old civic, state, and national groupings have become unworkable. Nothing can be further from the spirit of the new technology than ‘a place for everything and everything in its place.’ You can’t go home again."

It seems, and appropriately enough, McLuhan's thesis was best summarized in a New Yorker cartoon presented here without comment near the very end with this quip:

"You see, Dad, Professor McLuhan says that the environment that man creates becomes his medium for defining his role in it. The invention of type created linear, or sequential thought, separating thought from action. Now, with TV and folk singing, thought and action are closer and social involvement is greater. We again live in a village. Get it?"
The New Yorker Magazine 1966

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