Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

With all the ink spilt over UNDERSTANDING MEDIA it is easy to forget that it is just a book full of printed words, one of the media McLuhan discussed. Wait one second, if the message, in itself, doesn't really matter, if the media is the message, what differentiated this book from any other? It was his literary style, his dichotomies, his analogies and his metaphors.The fact is that inventing dichotomies is like asserting theories without any evidence. How can you prove the validity of a dichotomy? Couldn't these dichotomies become distortions, even an abuse of language? And although Marshall doesn't proclaim any morality involved by using his dichotomies, it is implicitly there.McLuhan's linguistic technique was to use dichotomies such as media and message, such as hot and cold media, such as electric and pre-electric culture. He placed his dichotomies like stones across a river. Once the readers step off the shore they must keep stepping on these stones, these dichotomies, or go splash. There is no way to turn around.The problem with McLuhan's message, with his vocabulary, with particularly his terms "extensions" and "media" is that he implied a rather ridiculous metaphor with them. His term, "extensions" depicted man being jerked by the unseen puppeteer, outside strings attached to the numb puppet to make him dance.As he discussed at length in Chapter 21, The Press, McLuhan was very aware that he was spinning the words. He had a corporate image of his own to enhance, UNDERSTANDING MEDIA, itself. He was his own press agent. Listen to him on P. 213,: "Today's press agent regard the newspaper as a ventriloquist does his dummy." McLuhan was both writing a book and advertising that book at the same time. He wasn't hung up on being accurate -- he knew the spinning power of fiction. On P. 216 he speaks of "dressing up language." It becomes obvious that he used all the techniques he discussed in advertising while writing this book.His idea that man's brain was a blank tableau, a tabula rasa, set the reader up for his dichotomies that all media were extensions of man's brain or central nervous system, CNS. But is man's CNS a tabula rasa? One thinks not. The various media he listed are all part and parcel of man's CNS. It would have been more accurate to term McLuhan's so called "extensions" as dimensions. These "extensions" never actually existed outside McLuhan's thesis and vocabulary.

The book is great. A classical read for sociologists, it is also a must for philosophers dealing with epistemological problems. In fact, it is abundant with ideas - hard to believe that someone could have had such intuitions at the dawn of the era of media. I see it even as a precursor to the cognitive turn because the concept of 'neurally extended man', although in relation to media, is a key to understading how our cognition works in the context of post-industrial society. Recommended absolutely.

This is a beautiful edition. And the critical commentary by Terrence Gordon provides a helpful structure for getting your mind around McLuhan's ideas.Although this may be McLuhan's great work, it is not best place to start. It is long and often incoherent. On page 39, McLuhan introduces a notoriously difficult metaphor that he uses through the book. It concerns hot and cool media. "Hot media are ... low in participation, and cool media are high in participation or completion by the audience." So, he explains, hieroglyphics and photographs are hot, but the phonetic alphabet and cartoons are cool. Radio and movies are hot, but the TV and the telephone are cool.Does that make any sense? If not, the better place to start is his earlier work, The Gutenberg Galaxy. It is shorter, and the logic is much easier to follow. It lays out the basis of McLuhan's thinking about how changes in media reshape culture. If you are a systematic thinker like me, it is a far better book to get the basics of McLuhan's analytical method and ideas.Even if you have the basics, UM is a dense, inspiring, and unsettling work. In each of the 33 chapters, McLuhan makes connections that change the way I think about culture. But just as often, he makes some nonsensical analogy or leap of logic and then fails to explain it.In the end, it helps to stop trying to understand UM and let it inspire you to think.In other words, it is very cool.

I have read this book at least ten times. I learn something new each time.If you are trying to understand "what society has become" or "what society is becoming", you must read this book. McLuhan was quite the visionary. He predicted it all.Do not be discouraged if you find it a difficult read. It IS challenging. My advice would be to skip ahead a few chapters if you find yourself bogged down. As you move forward, something will eventually click. There is so much in each paragraph. It's not easy. But don't give up.It is best read in a completely white room under a completely white light with no furniture or other man-made objects. You'll understand why once you get there.

anyone who wants to say anything intelligent about media, social media, smartphones, or just about anything else about the modern age of technology should read this. repeatedly. until you begin to understand it even a little bit. it takes a lot of effort to read... but it's so incredibly insightful, even prophetic, that, well, nobody should pretend to pontificate without starting with knowing this book well.

It goes without saying the work itself remains as monumental as before but this sparkling hardcover edition adds the facet of beauty. I grew up with an old Mentor paperback with microscopic print and about zero whitespace. This edition sets the chapters nicely apart from each other, giving the reader and the text some room to breath. I highly recommend this Gingko critical edition.

I love to read. I love to read about marketing. This book, I do not love...yet. It is not an easy read by any stretch. I feel like I have to work at it a bit. This has been called the bible for marketing, so I will pick it up again and start over.

The book by McLuhan provides a very novel perspective on communication, a mix of logical and lateral thoughts such as "medium" obliterating "message" and even becoming "massage," hotting and cooling of media, media as extension of sensory organs, and so on. I don't think the book should be read as something that one logically agrees or disagrees with, rather it should be appreciated as set of creative ideas on communication, which is currently little bit difficult to find in most of the communication books.

Perfect

Questo libro merita la sua fama come un classico duraturo. McLuhan è un brillante scrittore con un'affascinante intuizione sugli effetti di tutti i tipi di strumenti sulla società umana e sugli individui. È altamente raccomandato.

Excellent. Slow read for me. But a very worthwhile investment of time.

An excellent read for anyone interested, from academic to casual readers. Essential for students of Media and Communication courses anywhere.