Synopses & Reviews
When we speak of clouds these days, it is as likely that we mean data clouds or network clouds as cumulus or stratus. In their sharing of the term, both kinds of clouds reveal an essential truth: that the natural world and the technological world are not so distinct. In
The Marvelous Clouds, John Durham Peters argues that though we often think of media as environments, the reverse isand#160;just as trueandmdash;environments
are media.
Peters defines media expansively as elements that compose the human world. Drawing from ideas implicit in media philosophy, Peters argues that media are more than carriers of messages: they are the very infrastructures combining nature and culture that allow human life to thrive. and#160;Through an encyclopedic array of examples from the oceans to the skies, The Marvelous Clouds reveals the long prehistory of so-called new media. Digital media, Peters argues, are an extension of early practices tied to the establishment of civilization such as mastering fire, building calendars, reading the stars, creating language, and establishing religions. New media do not take us into uncharted waters, but rather confront us with the deepest and oldest questions of society and ecology: how to manage the relations people have with themselves, others, and the natural world.
A wide-ranging meditation on the many means we have employed to cope with the struggles of existenceandmdash;from navigation to farming, meteorology to Googleandmdash;The Marvelous Clouds shows how media lie at the very heart of our interactions with the world around us. and#160;Petersandrsquo;s and#160;book will not only change how we think about media but provide a new appreciation for the day-to-day foundations of life on earth that we so often take for granted.
Review
andldquo;This book is about media in the way that Moby-Dick is about whaling. When Melville set the Pequod sailing between heaven and earth, he turned the ship into a lens through which his readers could examine humankindandrsquo;s place in the cosmos. In The Marvelous Clouds, Peters turns water, land, fire, and sky into lenses through which readers can explore the role of mediation in every aspect of their lives. This is a completely original, wildly ambitious, and deliciously lyrical book. It will certainly change the way you see media. It might also change the way you see the world.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Wide-ranging, playful, erudite, and delightfully diverse, The Marvelous Clouds redefines media in the largest possible terms, as anything that communicates meaning, including bodies, the environment, and the world itself.and#160; Although this may seem to rob media of its specificity and therefore of its theoretical purchase, in Petersandrsquo;s hands it becomes the occasion for making surprising and insightful connections.and#160; A treat for academics and general readers alike, this is a book not to be missed.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Petersandrsquo;s dazzlingly intelligent and elegantly written book has the potential of marking a long-anticipated threshold in the world of media studies. Conversant with the philosophical traditions and with the ongoing debates in Germany, where this emerging discipline took its origin, his epistemological realism overcomes the conventional positions of the andlsquo;linguistic turnandrsquo; and of andlsquo;constructivismandrsquo; with a fresh and truly inspired unfolding of intuitions ranging from Martin Heideggerand#39;s andlsquo;fourfoldandrsquo; to the Emersonian philosophy of nature. Between earth and sky, Peters understands and analyzes media as the energy behind our environmentandrsquo;s permanent transformations. The Marvelous Clouds, I believe, is the foundational media epistemology that we have been awaiting for decades.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The book is, on one level, an ambitious re-writing andmdash; a re-synthesis, even andmdash; of concepts of media and culture. On another, it is a rich and entertaining compendium of arcana, covering everything from shipwrighting to planetary motion, from bone evolution to calendrical design. Ultimately, it is nothing less than an attempt at a history of Being, from an unusually brisk, cheerful and pragmatic Heideggerian.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A highly original book. . . . This is a deeply philosophical and beautifully written account of the modes of being of all things, and their interrelationships.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;More than fundamental. Media in this book are not defined as just more technological supplements to human beings but as a source that opens an extension for human self-knowledge. . . . Peters defines modern technologies as a space endowed with intelligence that seeks to be like God.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Communication plays a vital and unique role in society-often blamed for problems when it breaks down and at the same time heralded as a panacea for human relations. A sweeping history of communication,
Speaking Into the Air illuminates our expectations of communication as both historically specific and a fundamental knot in Western thought.
Synopsis
Communication plays a vital and unique role in society-often blamed for problems when it breaks down and at the same time heralded as a panacea for human relations. A sweeping history of communication,
Speaking Into the Air illuminates our expectations of communication as both historically specific and a fundamental knot in Western thought.
"This is a most interesting and thought-provoking book. . . . Peters maintains that communication is ultimately unthinkable apart from the task of establishing a kingdom in which people can live together peacefully. Given our condition as mortals, communication remains not primarily a problem of technology, but of power, ethics and art." —Antony Anderson, New Scientist
"Guaranteed to alter your thinking about communication. . . . Original, erudite, and beautifully written, this book is a gem." —Kirkus Reviews
"Peters writes to reclaim the notion of authenticity in a media-saturated world. It's this ultimate concern that renders his book a brave, colorful exploration of the hydra-headed problems presented by a rapid-fire popular culture." —Publishers Weekly
What we have here is a failure-to-communicate book. Funny thing is, it communicates beautifully. . . . Speaking Into the Air delivers what superb serious books always do-hours of intellectual challenge as one absorbs the gradually unfolding vision of an erudite, creative author." —Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer
About the Author
John Durham Peters is the A. Craig Baird Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Speaking into the Air and Courting the Abyss, both also published by the University of Chicago Press. He lives in Iowa City.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Problem of Communication
The Historicity of Communication
The Varied Senses of "Communication"
Sorting Theoretical Debates in (and via) the 1920s
Technical and Therapeutic Discourses after World War II
1. Dialogue and Dissemination
Dialogue and Eros in the Phaedrus
Dissemination in the Synoptic Gospels
2. History of an Error: The Spiritualist Tradition
Christian Sources
From Matter to Mind: "Communication" in the Seventeenth Century
Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism
3. Toward a More Robust Vision of Spirit: Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard
Hegel on Recognition
Marx (versus Locke) on Money
Kierkegaard's Incognitos
4. Phantasms of the Living, Dialogues with the Dead
Recording and Transmission
Hermeneutics as Communication with the Dead
Dead Letters
5. The Quest for Authentic Connection, or Bridging the Chasm
The Interpersonal Walls of Idealism
Fraud or Contact? James on Psychical Research
Reach Out and Touch Someone: The Telephonic Uncanny
Radio: Broadcasting as Dissemination (and Dialogue)
6. Machines, Animals, and Aliens: Horizons of Incommunicability
The Turing Test and the Insuperability of Eros
Animals and Empathy with the Inhuman
Communication with Aliens
Conclusion: A Squeeze of the Hand
The Gaps of Which Communication Is Made
The Privilege of the Receiver
The Dark Side of Communication
The Irreducibility of Touch and Time
Appendix: Extracts (Supplied by a Sub-sublibrarian)
Acknowledgments
Index