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reinhardt's review against another edition
4.0
First of alll, the 1970 hardcover edition has the kind of quality binding and heavy paper that is sadly nearly extinct. It is a physical pleasure to handle this book.
As a McLuhan fanboy, I loved this book. It's not an easy book to read with allusions and references to complex literature such as James Joyce and TS Eliot, but it's not meant to be. It's not straight exposition, rather it's a series of probes into the nature of cliches and archetypes and how they transform into one another. The book also explores how cliches and archetypes hide and contain meaning.
The chapters are arranged alphabetically including the introduction and table of contents. I suggest reading the introduction first even though it is filed under letter 'i'. It is really and introduction to the book.
The book is full of the famous McLuhan aphorism. It help flesh out the meaning of his famous dictum that the medium is the message. It looks at different environments, such as theatre, identity, culture, the public, and how cliches and archetypes, and language itself, are at play in those environments.
Overall, a rewarding read, but difficult to summarize and remarkable prescient.
As a McLuhan fanboy, I loved this book. It's not an easy book to read with allusions and references to complex literature such as James Joyce and TS Eliot, but it's not meant to be. It's not straight exposition, rather it's a series of probes into the nature of cliches and archetypes and how they transform into one another. The book also explores how cliches and archetypes hide and contain meaning.
The chapters are arranged alphabetically including the introduction and table of contents. I suggest reading the introduction first even though it is filed under letter 'i'. It is really and introduction to the book.
The book is full of the famous McLuhan aphorism. It help flesh out the meaning of his famous dictum that the medium is the message. It looks at different environments, such as theatre, identity, culture, the public, and how cliches and archetypes, and language itself, are at play in those environments.
Overall, a rewarding read, but difficult to summarize and remarkable prescient.
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