Marshall McLuhan 1968 - The Medium Is The Message A Dummies Guide - Fordham

Title: The Medium Is The Message - A Dummies Guide Date: 26 February 1968 Location: Fordham University Introduction: by John Culkin Speakers: Marshall McLuhan, Ted Carpenter Themes: 11:31 Ashley Montague's "Culture" 12:26 Pat Paulsen 13:05 smoking is a weaker form of inner trip (the pipe is more than the cigar) 14:48 Early Man's "carrying" (kinetic sense) and walking erect (creating memory) 18:44 primitive yowling (a call system) and "opera" 19:16 "ordinary music is speech slowed down" vs. opera 19:45 the folk song retains contact with speech 20:11 the origins of chatter 20:46 verticality and sight's upside-downness 22:06 Carpenter: the child, the native, the "insane", and verticality 22:43 McLuhan: verticality, action painting, and Happenings 23:12 Parker: proprioception and gravity 23:46 McLuhan: Coleridge said "always start with the other man's ignorance" 24:12 Montague et al. don't know about McLuhan's "invisible environment" 24:47 the "subconscious" as speech, defined 25:52 the "subconscious" and the present speed-up 26:42 NASA is 200 years out-of-date 27:15 "if we wish" 27:22 Owen Wister's "The Virginian" (the first Western) and the identity quest 28:34 identity quest in the slum 28:56 McLuhan suggests the students investigate their younger brothers and sisters 29:55 no goals or point-of-view possible today ("you are everywhere in all times and spaces") 30:48 effects of the railway in the Victorian Age 31:14 the Viet Nam War 31:26 having a point-of-view 32:42 Education, identity, and warfare: "you get beat up or you beat someone up" 33:25 blinded by rage (via drink or LSD) is no point-of-view ("a technical term") 34:08 more on the media massage 34:53 the role of the classroom structure as anti-environment 35:01 Culkin mentions the "Electric Circus" and "Cheetah" clubs (tourists keep wearing their shoes, doing something stupid together) 35:30 getting "with it" defined as "giving up all action to the total service environment" (no free will) 35:57 "we are here to shock the somnambulists" (trying to build up awareness) 37:04 the death of God 37:15 the microphone (like the book) eliminates the seminar 37:52 the movie as multi-time-travel 38:14 Culkin says "nada" about film and a point-of-view 41:01 more on Pat Paulsen running for President 41:28 McLuhan suggests the students collect a lot of media jokes 41:33 Culkin says more "nada" 42:31 the "drop-in" as a consultant (people don't know what business they're in) 43:23 more on having no point-of-view via "following the processes" (see the Garbage Strike) 43:51 breakdown as breakthrough (McLuhan suggests the students collect examples) 45:16 "garbage crisis" defined (see the Container Corporation not the Mayor) 46:45 no "private consciousness" under electric conditions 48:23 Culkin interrupts about the 1965 experimental film, "Flicker" 50:48 McLuhan explains the "rearview mirror" as art form to mock Culkin's interest in film 51:10 TV is "writing with light on the audience" (X-ray) 51:43 no more ballot box (based on "charisma") under computer conditions 52:58 Smothers Brothers 53:06 Government hijacked by the consultants and "experts" (isolated specialists) 53:43 the novel as a form was reduced to "pop, song, hit parade stuff" in the 1910's 54:07 ULYSSES is a "documentary novel" (the whodunnit is ahead of the old narrative novel form) 54:20 ULYSSES ("a complex, mythic, symbolic form") is newsreel ("stream of consciousness") 56:07 LSD is TV ("writing with light" chemically) 56:23 Culkin mentions the film, "The Addict" 56:57 McLuhan chides Culkin again: "computers are us" (the obsolescence of the machine [Warhol])