Hard to read, yet visionary and enlightening.

Gosh, how do I even begin talking about this one. It took me almost 4 years to finish it; I had to take breaks from our from time to time. It's one of those books that seem to be written for a different kind of focus, and so densely packed with information and connections that you start feeling overwhelmed in no time.

He has a way to just dump information. In the same sentence he links Einstein's Theory of Relativity to MAD Magazine ("relative" understanding opened the door to cartoons and MAD's cynicism); in another wheels and Krazy Kat (wheels extend men's reach; bricks extend Krazy Kat's).

Still, he has a way to see and explain patterns others have ignored; it's no surprise many of the lessons from this book are still repeated to this day, and many future predictions turned out to be accurate (if painfully described).

Reads like the extensive ramblings of a madman that was correct more often than not. ( )

A book that stood out from all the others I was reading at the time. It helped me put advertising and newspapers and radio-TV into perspective. ( )

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/McLuhan-Pour-comprendre-les-media-Les-prolongemen...

> POUR COMPRENDRE LES MÉDIA, de Marshall Mcluhan (et Jean Paré) - Ed. Seuil Poche. — Inventeur de l’expression “village global”, McLuhan est généralement considéré comme LE premier penseur à avoir imaginé le “système nerveux” d’une planète intelligente, à savoir (bien avant internet, mais la préfigurant incontestablement) le réseau médiatique qui nous relie les uns aux autres de manière de plus en plus dense, au point que nous transformons littéralement l’espace-temps autour de nous... et donc notre conscience.
—Nouvelles Clés

em português
Os meios de comunicação como extensões do homem

Dr. McLuhan gave us a group of insights into the transition from getting our information primarily from the print mediums to the screen exposed information bath of today. The epigrams are on the money, and so is the overall message. How we get our information has a serious effect on the way our brains process and retain the information. Into the bargain the medium necessarily transforms the information it tries to transmit. This book is still worth reading, and paying attention to the point of view, as well as the portrait of the pre-internet age , will be helpful for the ages to come. ( )