(1911–1980)
Canadian educator, philosopher, scholar, author, and communication theorist“Marshall McLuhan is taken far too seriously.”
more infosource: 1967 interview, YouTube video here (worth watching)
category: self, self-deprecation
medium: Interview
“‘Authorship’—in the sense we know it today, individual intellectual effort related to the book as an economic commodity—was practically unknown before the advent of print technology. Medieval scholars were indifferent to the precise identity of the ‘books’ they studied. In turn, they rarely signed even what was clearly their own work. They were a humble service organization. Procuring texts was often a very tedious and time-consuming task. Many small texts were transmitted into volumes of miscellaneous content, very much like ‘jottings’ in a scrapbook, and, in this transmission, authorship was often lost.”
more infosource: The Medium is the Massage (New York: Touchstone, 1967), 122.
category: author, book, copyright, medieval history, writing
medium: Nonfiction
notes: Marshall McLuhan and graphic designer Quentin Fiore co-created this book and Jerome Agel “produced” it. More info about the publishing arrangement here
“In an electric information environment, minority groups can no longer be contained—ignored. Too many people know too much about each other. Our new environment compels commitment and participation. We have become irrevocably involved with, and respon-sible for, each other.”
more infosource: The Medium is the Massage (New York: Touchstone, 1967), 24.
buy on Amazon
category: community, participation, responsibility, technology
medium: Nonfiction
notes: Marshall McLuhan and graphic designer Quentin Fiore co-created this book and Jerome Agel “produced” it. More info about the publishing arrangement here
“To bring order into this jangled sphere man must find its centre.”
more info
Marshall McLuhan