Synopses & Reviews
Marshall McLuhan, the celebrated social theorist who defined the culture of the 1960s, is remembered now primarily for the aphoristic slogan he coined to explain the emerging new world of global communication: "The medium is the message." Half a century later, McLuhan's predictions about the end of print culture and the rise of "electronic inter-dependence" have become a reality--in a sense, the reality--of our time.
Douglas Coupland, whose iconic novel Generation X was a "McLuhanesque" account of our culture in fictional form, has written a compact biography of the cultural critic that interprets the life and work of his subject from inside. A fellow Canadian, a master of creative sociology, a writer who supplied a defining term, Coupland is the ideal chronicler of the uncanny prophet whose vision of the global village--now known as the Internet--has come to pass in the 21st century.
Review
"This delightful biography both entertains and instructs...illuminating the profound impact McLuhan had on how we think about media and communication." Ken Auletta
Review
"To read You Know Nothing of My Work is to behold a cultural Vulcan mind meld of mesmerizing intimacy." Walter Kirn
Synopsis
A crackling look at the philosopher whose founding ideas were at once obscure and eerily prophetic.
About the Author
Douglas Coupland has published twelve novels since his first novel, Generation X, was published in 1991. He is also a visual artist, with exhibitions in North America, Europe, and Asia. He lives in Vancouver.