Douglas Coupland wrote a brilliant biography of Marshal McLuhan called “You Know Nothing Of My Work!” and I got to read it this week. On a Kindle! McLuhan would have hated that. Considering my last post was a hastily scribbled diatribe against Adam Gopnik’s power-play dressed up as defence of individualism, Coupland’s book is a rare thing – a piece of writing that takes the faith of its subject seriously.
Here is an example of how Coupland, whose own work is so heavily inspired by McLuhan, takes his distinctive voice to the job of praising this strange, angry, Catholic prophet:
But boy-oh-boy-boy did he string together words in a way that now seems like dense, fabulous poetry! And he saw the world as a book created by God, and believed that there is nothing in it that cannot be understood – and that we fail to try understanding it at our peril.
– Douglas Coupland, You Know Nothing Of My Work!, p. 17.
Your Correspondent, This is the best introduction to McLuhan.