Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)

Only good if you don't take it as serious politics/cultural studies, and even then it's pretty ridiculous. A lot of it looks absurd in the context of the 40 odd years of technological and political. development since this was written. The idea that modern technology is particularly liberating, especially, doesn't look like much now. It's weird because he seems to make comments every so often which show the essential similarity between modern technology and older technology but he doesn't let it change his rather bold predictions of the coming massive societal changes due to technology. The text is written kind of confusingly a lot of the time. Overall it's just a bit crap.

The "art" aspect is pretty poor and I really don't appreciate stuff like mirror text.

"Until writing was invented, man lived in acoustic space: boundless, directionless, horizonless, in the dark of the mind, in the world of emotion, by primordial intuition, by terror. Speech is a social chart of this bog." Really? Is there any reason to believe this at all?

"The instantaneous world of electric informational media involves all of us, all at once. No detachment or frame is possible." No reason to consider this true.

"In tribal societies we are told that it is a familiar reaction, when some hideous event occurs, for some people to say, "How horrible it must be to feel like that," instead of blaming somebody for having done something horrible. This feeling is an aspect of the new mass culture we are moving into—a world of total involvement in which everybody is so profoundly involved with everybody else and in which nobody can really imagine what private guilt can be anymore." First, "tribal societies"?? Lazy as hell. There's a lot of ideas about "primitive" society in this that are just claptrap. And second guilt is just as private. Like he regularly says that technology is making the world more connected and social yet the reality is that things haven't changed much in that respect and if anything we've become *more* atomised - the reams of analysis about neoliberalism bear this out.

"The poet, the artist, the sleuth —whoever sharpens our perception tends to be antisocial; rarely "well-adjusted," he cannot go along with currents and trends. A strange bond often exists among anti-social types in their power to see environments as they really are." Very unpleasant "sheeple" style talk, no reason at all to believe this really.

I really think humour actually works to reinforce existing prejudices - it's generally done before thought, based on your pre-existing ideas.

"Formerly, the problem was to invent new forms of labor-saving. Today, the reverse is the problem. Now we have to adjust, not to invent." The problem is always to invent new ways of labour-saving, because that's capitalism. We have always needed to adjust to changes, it's a constant. There's been several serious changes in the past 1000 years (emergence of capitalism for a start). This is not new and not accurate.

He claims that television will not work as a background. Heh. His idea that television means the viewer participates whereas other mass media is just a "packaging device" makes no sense and is never explained.

I disagree with most of what he says and he never argues it or anything, it's just there. It feels super wanky, like adbusters or something. There's even a John Cage quote about how the I-Ching helped him find "joy". There are a few ok bits but it's not worth going through the rot.

"Hollywood is often a fomenter of anti-colonial rebellions" is stretching the truth a lot.

Talk about "Orientalizing" the West is gross and racist and makes no sense.

The idea that electronic media brings us into a village again has not really been borne out at all.

Will appeal if you love going on about "spectacle", "sheeple" or talking about how revolutionary twitter is. Will not appeal if you want decent politics, good arguments, good writing, good analysis, or good art. Admittedly I'm probably being unfair with a 1 star rating, but I'm sick of technological fetishism and there really wasn't anything convincing or exciting in this.… (lisätietoja)

La visione dei media nell'ottica della Chiesa: l'autore esamina come la Chiesa cattolica e altre istituzioni religiose vedano e utilizzino i media nella diffusione del messaggio religioso.

Le forme possibili della chiesa del futuro: McLuhan specula sulle possibili evoluzioni della Chiesa e come i media possano influenzare la sua struttura e funzionamento.
Queste sono solo alcune delle idee principali trattate nel libro. Per una comprensione più approfondita, sarebbe consigliabile leggere direttamente il testo.

In "La luce e il mezzo. Riflessioni sulla religione", Marshall McLuhan esplora la relazione tra religione e media attraverso diverse prospettive. Ecco alcuni modi in cui McLuhan affronta questo argomento nel libro:

Natura della conversione: McLuhan indaga sulla natura della conversione religiosa e come i media influenzino questo processo. Esplora come i mezzi di comunicazione possano influenzare le credenze e le pratiche religiose delle persone.

Visione dei media nell'ottica della Chiesa: L'autore analizza come la Chiesa cattolica e altre istituzioni religiose vedano e utilizzino i media nella diffusione del messaggio religioso. Esplora come i media possano essere considerati strumenti per raggiungere i fedeli e diffondere la fede.

Forme possibili della chiesa del futuro: McLuhan specula sulle possibili evoluzioni della Chiesa e come i media possano influenzare la sua struttura e funzionamento. Esplora come i cambiamenti tecnologici e mediatici possano plasmare la forma e l'organizzazione delle comunità religiose.

Queste sono solo alcune delle idee principali discusse da McLuhan nel libro. "La luce e il mezzo. Riflessioni sulla religione" offre un'analisi approfondita della relazione tra religione e media, offrendo spunti di riflessione su come i mezzi di comunicazione possano influenzare la fede e la pratica religiosa.

Marshall McLuhan, nel suo libro, esplora la relazione tra religione e media da diverse prospettive. La sua prospettiva sulla religione nel panorama dei media è stata influenzata dalla sua fede cattolica. McLuhan ha sostenuto che i media possono influenzare la fede e la pratica religiosa delle persone, e ha esplorato come la Chiesa cattolica e altre istituzioni religiose vedano e utilizzino i media nella diffusione del messaggio religioso.

Inoltre, ha speculato sulle possibili evoluzioni della Chiesa e come i media possano influenzare la sua struttura e funzionamento. McLuhan ha anche sostenuto che la comprensione della religione e dei media richiede una partecipazione attiva alla comprensione di come i messaggi vengono trasmessi e ricevuti.

In generale, la prospettiva di McLuhan sulla religione e sui media è stata influenzata dalla sua fede cattolica e dalla sua comprensione dei media come strumenti per la diffusione del messaggio religioso. "Il mezzo è il messaggio" è un "messaggio" chiaro. Il "Verbo" è il "Mezzo" e anche il "Messaggio".… (lisätietoja)

Hard to read, yet visionary and enlightening.

Gosh, how do I even begin talking about this one. It took me almost 4 years to finish it; I had to take breaks from our from time to time. It's one of those books that seem to be written for a different kind of focus, and so densely packed with information and connections that you start feeling overwhelmed in no time.

He has a way to just dump information. In the same sentence he links Einstein's Theory of Relativity to MAD Magazine ("relative" understanding opened the door to cartoons and MAD's cynicism); in another wheels and Krazy Kat (wheels extend men's reach; bricks extend Krazy Kat's).

Still, he has a way to see and explain patterns others have ignored; it's no surprise many of the lessons from this book are still repeated to this day, and many future predictions turned out to be accurate (if painfully described).

Reads like the extensive ramblings of a madman that was correct more often than not.… (lisätietoja)