Monday, March 2, 2015

Wordsworth is not the Massage

Marshall McLuhan demonstrates a lot of his intellectual prowess through the use of other people's intellectual property. By constantly referencing and quoting historical figures who revolutionized the content of their own medium, McLuhan finds support for smaller arguments that he makes. However, each of those figures were most interested in the content of their productions and creations.

William Wordsworth is an excellent example of that truth. He revolutionized his own field of poetry by becoming a founding father of the Romantic Age of English literature.

I am a very research oriented individual and gained a lot from the experience of researching Wordsworth. I struggled a bit more in establishing a clear thesis that combines Wordsworth and McLuhan into one cohesive message. However, by spending enough time thinking about it, I realized that the two actually have less in common than one would initially assume. This helped me disprove McLuhan key argument once and for all.

2 comments:

  1. He does use quotes to drive his argument. Taking things out of context makes it so much easier to manipulate meaning.

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  2. I like the way you arranged your photos in this post, because it lines up quite nicely with your argument: Wordsworth is like "McLuhan, do you really think this is what I'm saying? I was really trying to get at..." and McLuhan is like "Shut up, Wordsworth, I'm over here being awesome."

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