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Page THE HERALD OUTLOOK Saturday May 13 Book review McLuhan bio answers question Boating accidents rise By ALLAN GOULD Marshall McLuhan was one the major stars of the very media that he helped to define so brilliant ly He was arguably the most inter nationally famous Canadian of the 1960s and that includes Gordon Anne Murray and possibly even Pierre Trudea For that reason alone although there are countless other good reasons a fine new biography by the ex cellent Philip Marchand is ex tremely welcome Marshall The Medium and the Messenger Random House pages Marchand is a superior stylist with a solid academic background and his many years as a successful journalist have only helped him to write a highly readable pleasurable intelligent study of a most remarkable human being and consciousness- raiser The fame that McLuhan achiev ed during his toobrief lifetime is undeniable He died shortly before the threescoreandten men tioned in the Bible he loved so dear ly At one point in the 1960s his name would regularly pop up New Yorker cartoons as frequent as on bestseller lists The expres sion Marshall what arc ya was considered a wit ticism across much of North America And was even tagged by filmmaker Woody Allen for a walkon as himself natural ly in Allens Academy Award- winning film Annie Hall Hardly the kind of international awareness one would expect for a lad of the Canadian prairies is more than satisfac tory on the future mediagurus youth in Edmonton the influence of 1920s pop McLuhans passion lor words the would memorize the most obscure from the Oxford English Dic tionary his unease with mechanical things the failure of his parents marriage the positive influence of the Great Depression no need to go job hunting the effect of such writers as Chester ton on McLubanJs eventual conver sion to Roman Catholicism which would so influence his entire life and thoughts his hatred for both Marxism and capitalism his move to Cambridge to study where he not only learned to love Elliot but even gained a respect for advertising PERSONAL INTERVIEWS But unlike the previous paragraph Marchand does no listing of key events in his book He draws deeply from dozens of per sonal interviews as well as McLuhans diaries enriches the mix with such crucial insights as these felt that his upbringing on the prairies provided him with a kind of natural counterenvironment to the great centres of civilization He felt he had the advantage that am bright outsider brings with him from the boondocks when he comes to big city a freshness outlook that often enables him to see overall patterns missed by the inhabitants who have been moulded by those patterns Right on And it was ability to find patterns in our mass media that so changed his life and very possibly the way that one-billion- plus people look at those media in the last quarter of the 2tth century incredible energy his astonishing the way his mind worked so remarkably quickly and coniet- like are captured in this exquisite ly written biographj is keen in his tracking down of the countless influences on McLuhans thought from the well- known one of Harold limes at the University of to an obscure Jesuit student Walter Ong whose thesis hit upon the basic notion underlying seminal book The Gutenberg Galaxy rtamely that Western culture in the Renaissance had shifted from a primarily mode of ap prehending reality to a primarily visual mode and that the vehicle for this shift was the invention of printing McLuhan the man doesnt always smell as sweet in this book The descriptions of his exaspera tion with his children his reading the Bible aloud to them at four the morning his purported anti- homosexual and antifeminist feel ings his nearparanoia about Freemasons and others his petty tensions with other professors at the University of Toronto his in ability to complete most projects that he began all add up to an un comfortable portrait of an obvious ly brilliant but occasionally grotes que man SHAKEN Still who cannot he shaken to read of McLuhans prescient suggestion in 1966 lor the manufacture and sale of taped movies for replay on televi sion sets VCR two decades early Who cannot be appreciative of clear description of views of radio and TV ASK KATHY Number Hoot Number 8530780 Personal Consultation By Appointment ed that Hitler was made by radio and would have been undone by television The remark touched a nerve with many leftwing com mentators who seized on it as pro of of frivolous ap proach to things yet it is an entire ly accurate and perceptive remark Radio excited people because it stimulated the ear that emotive organ and encouraged fantasy television on ihe other hand held people in the grip a profound involvement with its elec tronic dots an involvement that could easily be mistaken for passivity and even menial vacan cy This book is a for all students of the media and lor anyone interested in this most pro found thinker whatever his fail ings in scholarship and the weakness of his several non- books The real disappointment is that did not speak with McLuhans widow or any of the six children And to not quote from his close friend and agent is as inex cusable as ling a book on Fit zgerald and not mentioning Max well Perkins And so a strong sug gestion Head this book but aug ment it with the crucial Letters Marshall gathered by his agent and William and published by Oxford Together youll finally have everything you need to know other than McLuhans books themselvi Allan Gould is a Torontobased journalist and author whose latest book Is a work of political satire The Great Wiped Out North Ml Statistics show that one out of two will be involved with boating this year With that mind the Ontario Provincial Police has prepared information designed to alert the public to dangers related to boating Last year fatalities were up with killed compared to in good swimmer to locate a jacket and put it on after capsizing Hypothermia is another dangerous factor that should be considered Most lakes have an average temperature of two degrees Calsius in May and at that temperature life expectancy can be measured in seconds Cold water chills 25 times Approximately half of fatal faster than cold air If your boat accidents are alcoholrelated Alcohol consumption is more hazardous on a small boat than on shore said SSgt Larry Smith It throws off coordination balance and judgement which are very important factors in safe boating Eightyfive per cent of those kill ed were not wearing life jackets capsizes you should try to get as much of your body out of the water and onto the boat as you can Of course you should also dress warmly for this kind of weather Even though the air may feel warm the water isnt said Smith More than threequarters of the fatal accidents that occurred last year could have been prevented if Life jackets wont work if you boaters had respected basic safety dont wear them said SSgt rules and used proper safety equip- Simth It is 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