Re: Anyone know what "Macluuewenesk" means?

[Robert Clements <clemensr@mailhost.world.net>]

pbm972+@pitt.edu wrote:
> 
> On the "At home with GG" cd, he says that something is "Maclewanesk."
> Has to be spelled wrong here.  Any ideas who Mcalewan is and what
> Macalewanesk would refer to?
> 
> Sean

Probably _McLuhanesque_; as in Marshall McLuhan.

It's hard to believe that the ol' _medium is the mass age_ guru is 
virtually forgotten now (his high point - in more senses than one - was 
the 60s; & he was still well enough known a decade later to make a cameo 
appearance as himself in Woody Allen's _Annie Hall_); but given his 
fascination with the ephermerality of information transmission, MM 
himself would probably have expected it.

(Might even have been disappointed if it didn't happen. If MM had 
remained the media guru over an extended of time, it would have somewhat 
compromised the integrity of his media theories)

His basic philosophical schtick was the various media for information 
transmission were conflating (fusing together, as it were)... fine as an 
observation; but the theory which tried to explain the mechanisms behind 
this conflation work better in sound-grabs than in formal analysis.

(Admittedly: that was at least part of the theory's point)

To McLuhan, information was _assembled_ by the media which communicated 
it; hence this conflation of different media (if more confusing) would 
offer a more complete information picture....

Now reread the previous sentence; & compare it with the use of multilevel 
information montage in GG's radio documentaries... & this is only the 
most blatant point of comparison between the two gurus....

Like GG, McLuhan was Canadian if i remember; & two of Canada's more 
intriguing film figures show strong influences of the ghost in the global 
village: David Cronenberg's _Videodrome_ was (literally) a McLuhanesque 
nightmare, & featured a television guru who was (also literally) a media 
construction. Atom Egoyan makes McLuhanesque films (end of analysis).

All the best,


Robert Clements <clemensr@mailhost.world.net>
<http://www.ausnet.net.au/~clemensr/welcome.htm>