Extraordinary Canadians: Marshall McLuhan
Encyclopedia
Marshall McLuhan is a biography
written by Canadian author Douglas Coupland
as a part of Penguin Canada's
Extraordinary Canadians series. It will be published in March 2011 in the US by Atlas & Company under the title, "Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of my Work!".
and his ideas relatable to the reader of this biography. The biography follows McLuhan's life from his youth in Winnipeg, through his schooling at Cambridge, and to his founding of the Media Studies program at the University of Toronto. The biography features prominent sections in which the author reflects on how his life and his ideas relate to Marshall McLuhan. From old family connections, to influences of his later works like Generation A
, Coupland creates a narrative tale that follows the biographical narrative in which Coupland explores the implications on his life and the world in general that stems from McLuhan's ideas.
Coupland also uses the second person in some sections of the biography, creating an immediacy between the reader and the author that also heightens the relatability of McLuhan's life and his ideas.
The biographical movements are also framed in current technology; the section titles are different keyboard commands, such as "... return" and "... command ... shift". The functions of the keyboard commands relate to the changes happening in McLuhan's biographical narrative.
The novel features some Coupland staples, such as the long lists of repeating, yet changing, words, and vignette-like personal stories which are similar to those found in his other non-fiction works, such as Souvenir of Canada
.
Other interesting inserts are the current auction prices for copies of McLuhan's books, as well as many quotes from or about McLuhan. There are also MapQuest
derived directions of different places and travels that McLuhan made, which creates a modern relatability of the distances and locations in the biography.
. He includes Simon Baron-Cohen’s Autism-Spectrum Quotient
quiz, and discusses how McLuhan's actions may have been signs of this affliction. However, he does not state that he is autistic, but uses McLuhan's actions as a point of relation between himself and his subject. Autism has been a theme in other novels by Coupland, such as JPod
.
As Coupland has wrote about the effects of technology in previous works like Microserfs
and JPod
, he discusses the relations between modern technology and McLuhan's ideas in the modern context, with subject matter like Wikipedia
and YouTube
.
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
written by Canadian author Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognized works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized terms such as McJob and...
as a part of Penguin Canada's
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
Extraordinary Canadians series. It will be published in March 2011 in the US by Atlas & Company under the title, "Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of my Work!".
Style
This biography uses many stylistic writing techniques to make both Marshall McLuhanMarshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar—a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist...
and his ideas relatable to the reader of this biography. The biography follows McLuhan's life from his youth in Winnipeg, through his schooling at Cambridge, and to his founding of the Media Studies program at the University of Toronto. The biography features prominent sections in which the author reflects on how his life and his ideas relate to Marshall McLuhan. From old family connections, to influences of his later works like Generation A
Generation A
Generation A is the thirteenth novel from Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland. It takes place in a near future, in a world in which bees have become extinct. The novel is told with a shifting frame narrative perspective, shifting between the novel's five main protagonists...
, Coupland creates a narrative tale that follows the biographical narrative in which Coupland explores the implications on his life and the world in general that stems from McLuhan's ideas.
Coupland also uses the second person in some sections of the biography, creating an immediacy between the reader and the author that also heightens the relatability of McLuhan's life and his ideas.
The biographical movements are also framed in current technology; the section titles are different keyboard commands, such as "... return" and "... command ... shift". The functions of the keyboard commands relate to the changes happening in McLuhan's biographical narrative.
The novel features some Coupland staples, such as the long lists of repeating, yet changing, words, and vignette-like personal stories which are similar to those found in his other non-fiction works, such as Souvenir of Canada
Souvenir of Canada
Souvenir of Canada is a 2002 book written by Canadian author Douglas Coupland. A feature film based on the book was released theatrically in 2006....
.
Other interesting inserts are the current auction prices for copies of McLuhan's books, as well as many quotes from or about McLuhan. There are also MapQuest
MapQuest
MapQuest is an American free online web mapping service owned by AOL. The company was founded in 1967 as Cartographic Services, a division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1969. When it became an independent company in 1994, it was...
derived directions of different places and travels that McLuhan made, which creates a modern relatability of the distances and locations in the biography.
Themes
This biography has many themes. As noted by Coupland, there are other biographies of McLuhan which delve into more personal details, such as the stories of his children and wife. This biography is mostly focused on McLuhan as a man, and the ideas that man created. The biography follows the genesis of his ideas from conception to production to reception, and their effect on him as a person, and how the have shaped the perceptions of the world since.Autism
Coupland focuses in this novel on the idea that McLuhan exhibited many signs today recognized as falling somewhere on the Autism-SpectrumAutism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
. He includes Simon Baron-Cohen’s Autism-Spectrum Quotient
Simon Baron-Cohen
Simon Baron-Cohen FBA is professor of Developmental Psychopathology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He is the Director of the University's Autism Research Centre, and a Fellow of Trinity College...
quiz, and discusses how McLuhan's actions may have been signs of this affliction. However, he does not state that he is autistic, but uses McLuhan's actions as a point of relation between himself and his subject. Autism has been a theme in other novels by Coupland, such as JPod
JPod
JPod is a novel by Douglas Coupland published by Random House of Canada in 2006. Set in 2005, the book explores the strange and unconventional everyday life of the main character, Ethan Jarlewski, and his team of video game programmers whose last names all begin with the letter 'J'.JPod was...
.
Technology
The biography also takes a technological approach to the works of Marshall McLuhan, and how his ideas have become even more important with the rise of the Internet.As Coupland has wrote about the effects of technology in previous works like Microserfs
Microserfs
Microserfs, published by HarperCollins in 1995, is an epistolary novel by Douglas Coupland. It first appeared in short story form as the cover article for the January 1994 issue of Wired magazine and was subsequently expanded to full novel length...
and JPod
JPod
JPod is a novel by Douglas Coupland published by Random House of Canada in 2006. Set in 2005, the book explores the strange and unconventional everyday life of the main character, Ethan Jarlewski, and his team of video game programmers whose last names all begin with the letter 'J'.JPod was...
, he discusses the relations between modern technology and McLuhan's ideas in the modern context, with subject matter like Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
and YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.