The Medium Is the Message Is the Metaphor: Cool Reason and the Young Intellectual Public of Marshall McLuhan

摘要

Background Following recent reappraisals of the work of media and communications theorist Marshall McLuhan, this article argues that an overlooked aspect of his appeal and celebrity is not only his famous use of metaphor, but also a countercultural stance suggested by this use of metaphor. Analysis Applying Michael Warner's arguments about publics to McLuhan's rhetorical style, the article focuses partly on 1) the 1967 film This Is Marshall McLuhan: The Medium Is the Massage and how it might have addressed an audience of countercultural youth; and 2) related texts that helped to construct McLuhan's celebrity. Conclusions and implications Ultimately, the article historicizes McLuhan's celebrity to explain both its relatively short heyday in the 1960s and the comeback that can be attributed to the development of his young audience into teachers and reappraisers. Marshall McLuhan; Youth; Celebrity; Intellectual; Metaphor; Rhetoric