The Medium is the Massage
McLuhan,
M., and Fiore, Q. with Agel, J. (1967). The Medium is the Massage: An
Inventory of Effects. New York: Random House.
In 1967 McLuhan published The Medium is the Massage, a short volume which distilled many of his key ideas into aphorisms and brief paragraphs. Superbly designed by Quentin Fiore, the typography, layout and accompanying images wittily illustrate the content, making this McLuhan's most accessible text.
For an account of the design and composition of The Medium is the Massage, see Lupton and Miller (1996). For contemporary reviews see Crosby and Bond, especially Publisher's Weekly (1968).
A year after its publication in book form, an audio version was released.
The recording combines selections from the text, read by McLuhan, Fiore,
Agel, and others, with an eclectic mix of musical samples and accompaniment.
The LP was conceived and co-ordinated by Agel, and produced by John Simon.
LP (1968): Columbia CS 9501, CL2701; CD (1999): SONY Catalog #: SRCS-8912.
The album is available for
free in mp3 format at UbuWeb.
In 2010, a small portion of the album was remixed
by DJ Spooky.
Index
Acoustic and visual space: 48, 53-57, 63, 111-120, 125
Advertising and commercials: 126-28
Alice: see Carroll, Lewis
Alphabet, writing, print: 8, 44-50, 113-14, 117, 125,
128
Amateur, professional, expert: 92-93
Anti-colonialism: see Colonialism
Anti-environments: see Media as environments
Art: 52-53, 56-57, 132-36
Audience: see Public
Authorship and copyright: 122-23
Beatles, The: 114, 128, 137
Cage, John: 119
Carroll, Lewis: 42-43, 140-41, 153-54
Cities: 72
Colonialism and anti-colonialism: 131
Copyright: 122
Dewey, John: 54-55
Dylan, Bob: 104-06
Ear: see Senses and Acoustic
and visual space
Education and today's youth: 9-10, 18, 68, 100-03, 114, 126
Environments: see Media as environments
Eckhardt, Meister: 147
Expert: see Amateur
Extensions of man: see Media as extensions
Eye: see Senses and Acoustic
and visual space
Faraday, Michael: 92-93
Fields, W. C.: 90-91
Finegan's Wake: see Joyce, James
Fragmentation and specialism: 45, 69, 93, 100, 114
Global Village and participation: 16, 22, 24, 53, 61,
63, 67, 131
God: 146
Homer: 113-14
Humor: 10, 92
Inevitability and understanding: 8, 25, 68, 88, 150
Joyce, James: 120, 143-45
Kennedy, President: 125
Laotze: 145
Mass: see Public
Massage: see Media as massage
Media as environments, anti-environments: 26, 41, 68,
82-85, 93, 114, 142, 148
Media as extensions: 26-40
Media as massage: 26, 148
Memory: 113, 117
Monroe, Marilyn: 139
Montaigne: 96
Myth: 9, 100, 114
Narrative: 126
New York Times: 148-49
Newton: 146
Nietzsche: 144
Oppenheimer, J. Robert: 93
Orff, Carl: 56
Participation: see Global Village
Plato: 113-14
Poe, Edgar Allen: 150
Print: see Alphabet
Privacy: 12, 50, 61
Professional: see Amateur
Propaganda: 142
Public, mass, audience and participation: 22, 68-69,
114, 122
Publishing: see Authorship
Railway: 72
Rearview mirror: 22, 63, 68, 74-75, 81, 94
Science-fiction: 124
Senses and ratios: 27-41, 111-20, 125, 128
Sight: see Senses and Acoustic
and visual space
Socrates: 113
Specialism: see Fragmentation
Television: 124-28
Touch: 125
Understanding: see Inevitability
Variety Magazine: 131
Verne, Jules, 124
Visual space: see Acoustic and visual space
War: 138
Whitehead, A. N.: 6-7, 10, 160
Wilson, Harold: 137
Wordsworth: 44
Writing: see Alphabet
Xerography: 123