/lit/ - Literature

>>18368014
Medium is the Massage is good to get you interested. It's not too much for theory, but is a unique visual experience and play on format.

Gutenberg is for a more in-depth understanding of his ideas.

>>18368014
bump

>>18368014
bump

I tapped out of Medium is the Massage real fuckin quick. Some nice quotes though.

Understanding Media

>>18368014
Just buy either, McLuhan is great. As an introduction this interview is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImaH51F4HBw

Start with his teacher, Innis

Don't stop til you get to Walter Ong

>>18368014
>I'm poor so I will not buy both of them before I know more
Libgen exists

>>18368014
>Someone said The Gutenberg Galaxy is the best

That might have been me, and I still hold by that. I recommend listening to the numerous interviews and lectures of him on Youtube first. But once you listen to those, you'll be ready for the Gutenberg Galaxy and that work contains all of his major ideas.

>>18368014
Why has the quality of public intellectuals gone down the shitter over the decades? Canada went from Marshall McLuhan and George Grant to this

>>18370834
Marketing. Public figures have to make themselves appeal to more and more people and that requires dumbing down of their ideas.

That's not to make any remark on whatever Peterson thinks.

>>18370851
>That's not to make any remark on whatever Peterson thinks.
He is an establishment shill for global homo

>>18368014

If you already listen to podcasts, I'd check out "The Massage: Presented by The McLuhan Institute" as a complement.

Can someone pls explain what the medium is the message means in simple terms?
I think I sort of get it but not quite.
pls no bully

>>18368014

Many people find McLuhan impenetrable. If you are one of these guys, maybe check out his letters. He keeps trying to explain his ideas to people who don't understand them. Funnily, it makes for a decent intro. I think it's out of print, but used copies are available at reasonable prices here and there.

>>18370867

>But most people, from truck drivers to the literary Brahmins, are still blissfully ignorant of what the media do to them; unaware that because of their pervasive effects on man, it is the medium itself that is the message, not the content, and unaware that the medium is also the message–that, all puns aside, it literally works over and saturates and molds and transforms every sense ratio. The content or message of any particular medium has about as much importance as the stenciling on the casing of an atomic bomb.

https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/classes/188/spring07/mcluhan.pdf

>>18370867

Think of it this way, the written word has done more to influence humanity than any specific book. That man became literary changed the way he perceived and interacted with the world. It's much the same with the Internet. Each medium transforms man in a unique way. The content is secondary. The is container primary.

>>18370905
I think I see what he means, but nevertheless, doesn't it also matter what the content you that you are viewing or reading is? Two printed books are the same type of media but you can get a very different message depending on what you read. Julius Evola will give you a totally different message from what Karl Marx or Ayn Rand will give you.

>>18371114

The book, as dominant medium, did more to influence world events than any specific book. How much violence was spawned because pamphlets could be printed, distributed, and read? If you focus on the words, you miss the big picture.

>>18368014
I’ve never read McLuhan, but I read these three books that discuss his ideas. If a brainlet like me can get through these books, you can too. The shallows details how the Internet changed the way people think, amusing ourselves to death details how TV changed the way people think. Both of them explain how books are superior for retaining information, and how everyone’s attention span is declining. Understanding comics is good at showing the difference between words and pictures visually, and got me into reading manga[/ spoiler]

Read Flatline Constructs. Watch Videodrome. Try to figure out why prints of Luhan are so overpriced. Then start over.

>>18372662
I like Postman's books and I too thought that Shallows book was surprisingly good.