A tribute to and a lament for Marshall McLuhan. Five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, I present one of McLuhan’s observations and talk about its relevance today. 300 ideas. 300 days. 300 posts.
Classify Marshall McLuhan: A contest
Marshall McLuhan (Summer 1968, age 57). I reject all attempts to classify me
As I might have mentioned earlier, talking with Norman Mailer on CBC’s “The Summer Way” the other day, was like wrestling with a dark angel. He kept trying to classify me, pin me down, put me in a Cartesian square. But that’s the nineteenth century speaking. I am not a square peg that fits happily in a just-large-enough square hole. They asked me you will recall am I an artist or a scientist? Artist I suppose, but in truth neither. I am an observer.
Me (January 2010, age 57). Let us try.
Marshall McLuhan disliked labels. But that didn’t and hasn’t stopped people from labeling him. Here are some of the labels people have given McLuhan:
Canadian communications theorist
Professor
Literary scholar
Genius
Intellectual messiah
Canada’s Aristotle
Gear stripper
Delphic oracle
Educator
Future salesman
Visionary educator
Oracle
Charlatan
Theoretical, cognitive psychologist
Writer
Scholar
Social reformer
Popular philosopher
Pop guru
Media prophet
Media/technology analyst
Media darling
Seminal thinker
What label, if any, do you think is most accurate? Pick one or make one up of your own. Next week we will announce the winner. Good luck!
Cordially, Marshall and Me
Reading for the post
McLuhan: Hot & Cool. Edited by Gerald Stern, New York: Signet Books, 1967.