Kosinski - Marshall McLuhan
Was Kosinski drawing a metaphor for the impacts of electronic media on perception and thinking, and the emergence of the post-literate man? Marshal McLuhan wrote about three stages in the development of mankind - preliterate, literate and post literate. Preliterate society existed until the development of an alphabetic phonetic language. Literate society's development was accelerated by the invention of the moveable type printing press. Post literate society began developing with the invention of the telegraph and was accelerated by the development of TV and computers. Most of what we know is based on literate perceptions and means of communication. Chance the Gardner is Kosinski's conception of what someone would be like if they skipped the literate age entirely. Chance's learning is preliterate and post literate. He learned from nature and TV.
- Paul Schumann
Wired 1.01: Scream of Consciousness
Intrigued by Paglia's intellectual resemblance to Marshall McLuhan - patron saint of Wired magazine - Stewart Brand, the author of the Media Lab, caught up with Paglia in the court of a San Francisco hotel.
Wired News: Honoring Wired's Patron Saint
Wired 1.05: Repurposing the Material Girl By Nicholas Negroponte
Marshall McLuhan, the Man and his Message
Canadian Broadcast Corp Archives and The Connection.org : Revisiting Marshall McLuhan NPR
Also by Paul Schumann - The Wave of the Future: From Four Causes to Four Laws