Tom's Idiot Moment at Book Soup - New DNA evidence!

[KickTheBobo]

y'know, I've just spent the last 20 minutes researching this, and I cannot for the life of me find ANY book with the title "The Media is the Message". In fact, when you type that phrase into google, the top hits all lead to McLuhan.

Based on these findings, I will have to conclude that Tom was unjustifiably made to feel like an idiot.

[senorcorazon]

Never trust that pesky DNA evidence. What has science EVER taught us?

You sure the guy wasn't referring to this:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED183683&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED183683
That gangbusters topic presented at the 1978 Annual Convention of the International Association of Pupil Personnel? He must have been.

[Ason]

Never trust that pesky DNA evidence. What has science EVER taught us?

You sure the guy wasn't referring to this:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED183683&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED183683
That gangbusters topic presented at the 1978 Annual Convention of the International Association of Pupil Personnel? He must have been.

When I did a search I got lots of results for papers and articles
but none for books, which it seemed was the specific crux of the interaction.

Maybe if Tom would have stayed put he could have learned more about
this supposed book or whether they were just full of it.

[Sarah]

I haven't listened to the show yet, so I'm probably not getting a joke, but . . .

[Ason]

I haven't listened to the show yet, so I'm probably not getting a joke, but . . .

not a joke really

but if you can find a book
called
The Media is the Message
that would be awesome

[Emily]

http://worldcat.org/oclc/8437718&tab=details


probably not the book in question. but it is a book.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Clearly they were talking about cooking fire prevention and not the McLuhan book.  I mean, duh.

[Sarah]

Actually, I first looked for The Media Are the Message.

The fact is I read this thread when I was already falling asleep last night and am shocked and ashamed by how badly my eyes and brain were working (I didn't even notice that "message" doesn't occur in the title I linked to).  I went to bed two minutes later saying to myself, "Sarah, you're going to regret posting that."

[Sarah]

I just got to the point in the archive where "the media is the message" thing came up, and I see that my posting in this thread last night was an "I can't believe I crossed that line" moment.  Which is sort of perfect, don't you think?

[Chris L]

Uhm, I never noticed this before:

The book's title is actually a mistake according to McLuhan's son, Eric. The actual title was "The Medium is the Message" but it came back from the printer with the first "e" in message misprinted as an "a." McLuhan is said to have thought the mistake to be supportive of the point he was trying to make in the book and decided to leave it alone. Later readings have interpreted the word in the title as a pun meaning alternately "massage," "message," and "mass age."

[senorcorazon]

McLuhan is said to have thought the mistake to be supportive of the point he was trying to make in the book and decided to leave it alone. Later readings have interpreted the word in the title as a pun meaning alternately "massage," "message," and "mass age."

I've heard that before, but something tells me that there is a different story here. Something like:
MARSHALL: "Hey, you guys screwed up my cover"
PRINTER: "No, that was in the file you gave us"
MARSHALL: "Fix it"
PRINTER: "That'll be $12000"
MARSHALL: "Screw it. I'm gonna go smoke a lid and listen to some free jazz."