Art Metropole

#14343

Extraordinary Canadians: Marshall Mcluhan

Writer

Douglas Coupland

Date

2009

Format

Monographs

Size

13 × 20 × 2 cm

Length

251 pp

Genre

Biography, Theory

Who better than Douglas Coupland, a true child of Marshall McLuhan, to interpret the life and work of the communications guru? As novelist, sculptor, visual artist, and theatre performer, Coupland has created a body of work that often embodies McLuhan’s famous aphorism, “The medium is the message.” While the importance of McLuhan’s theories cannot be overstated, his written works are more often cited than read.

Nonetheless, his predictions have been borne out: in the early 1960s, McLuhan wrote that visual, individualistic print culture would be replaced by what he called “electronic interdependence,” creating a new “global village.” With his trademark humour and brilliance, Coupland reveals the prescience of McLuhan’s ideas, situating them in a startlingly current context.