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| Literature |
| Herbert Lottman |
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| Marshall McLuhan |
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| Terrence Gordon |
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| Wyndham Lewis |
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| Vladimir Nabokov |
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NEW FACSIMILE EDITION |
| Marshall McLuhan & Harley Parker: |
| Counterblast |
| In 1969 Marshall McLuhan observed that "today we live invested with an electric information environment that is quite as imperceptible to us as water is to a fish." He was convinced that the new electronic media shape not only the information they convey but also our very consciousness and that in order to actually perceive this a counter environment is needed. |
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| To demonstrate his point McLuhan wrote Counterblast. More a manifesto than a book, Counterblast is a typographically explosive compilation of short essays and probes (complex ideas compressed into a few thought-provoking words), all of which focus on the effects of media on the human condition. It could be seen as a compilation of bold headlines and it is hauntingly prescient, as this superbly reproduced facsimile of the original edition will affirm. |
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| In true McLuhan style the title 'COUNTERBLAST' is a play on the word 'BLAST,' the name given to a magazine designed by Wyndham Lewis in 1914 and the first publication ever to be set in heavy headline type, albeit in the face of enormous resistance from the London printing establishment who considered it anti-literary. McLuhan never wanted Counterblast to be perceived as literature, but rather a series of headlines as icons. |
Sections include The Hidden Environment and The Age of Information.
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142 pages, Hardcover, 5 ½'' x 8 ½'' (140 x 216 mm)
illustrated, English |
| ISBN: 978-1-58423-063-2 |
$ 16.95 |
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Gingko Press, Inc.
1321 Fifth Street
Berkeley, California 94710
Phone: (510) 898-1195
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| about: |
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| Marshall McLuhan |
| One of the most controversial and original thinkers of our time, McLuhan is universally regarded as the father of communications and media studies. |
| But he is far more than that. A charismatic figure, whose remarkable perception propelled him onto the international stage, McLuhan became the prophet of the new information age. |
| In his own time he drew both accolades and criticism for his intuitive vision, his steady stream of thought-provoking metaphors, and fast-forward glimpses into a world where software would eclipse hardware and the power of mass media would eclipse the power of government. The information superhighway fulfilled his perceptive observation that the world would ultimately become a "global village." |
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| Harley Parker (1915-1992) |
| Canadian artist. Co-author with Marshall McLuhan of Through the Vanishing Point: Space in Poetry and Painting. Design of several works for Professor McLuhan, the last one being Counterblast. |
| more about Harley Parker: |
| wikipedia.org/Harley_Parker |
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