The Medium is the – Oh god I’m Anxious

The overarching feeling I got from The Medium is the Massage is one of anxiety.  McLuhan used the pages of his text as a series of mirrors (sometimes literally, as some of the pages could be read properly when reflected in a mirror), reflections of oneself and the society of anxiety both created and perpetuated by media industrial complexes. The conglomeration of seemingly disparate images in different orientations, from different eras, smashed together on the same rectangular field in black-and-white well-represents the saturated, smattery plane that is our world of media. See page 60 for a good representation, in which there is a 60s comic-book-looking “BANG!” text about envelopement, standing next to two cut-outs of statues of ancient philosophers. Only their heads are present, looking out of place, and painfully one dimensional next to a Socrates quote.