Back in episode 112, Phil and JF devised a gimmick for a show: randomly select one of the many aphorisms in The Book of Probes, a compendium of Marshall McLuhan’s prophetic quips designed by David Carson, and see what happens. It proved lively enough that they’re trying it again nearly a hundred episodes later. The resulting conversation touches the weird across a range of themes: tourism, the two kinds of truth, advertising, Kubrick’s marketing savvy, technology, orality versus literacy, and much more. A fitting feast for the mind as the year draws to a close.
From all of us at Weird Studies, happy holidays.
• Sign up for JF Martel and Erik Davis's upcoming course on Moby-Dick.
• Join Phil, JF, and composer Pierre-Yves Martel for Weirdosphere's Solstice Story Hour on December 21.
• For dates, venues, and the full slate of Weird Academia events in Bloomington this January, visit the Centre for Possible Minds website.
• To participate in the Weird Academia Colloquium, email organizers Emma Stamm and Michael Garfield at elfthoughts@gmail.com
Header Image: NASA.
REFERENCES
Marshall McLuhan, Distant Early Warning Deck
Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
Plato, The Seventh Letter
Marshall McLuhan, The Book of Probes
Toronto School of Communication Theory
Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy
Paul Kingsnorth, Against the Machine
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
Plato, The Republic
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media
Jonathan Crary, 24/7
H. P. Lovecraft, The Color out of Space
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
