Episode 71: The Medium is the Message

Episode 71: The Medium is the Message

Author: SpectreVision Radio April 15, 2020 Duration: 1:25:35
On the surface, the phrase "the medium is the message," prophetic as it may have been when Marshall McLuhan coined it, points a now-obvious fact of our wired world, namely that the content of any medium is less important than its form. The advent of email, for instance, has brought about changes in society and culture that are more far-reaching than the content of any particular email. On the other hand, this aphorism of McLuhan's has the ring of an utterance of the Delphic Oracle. As Phil proposes in this episode of Weird Studies, it is an example of what Zen practitioners call a koan, a statement that occludes and illumines in equal measures, a jewel whose shining surface is an invitation to descend into dark depths. Join JF and Phil as they discuss the mystical and cosmic implications of McLuhan's oracular vision. REFERENCES McLuhan, Understanding Media The Playboy interview McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects Graham Harman, American philosopher Clement Greenberg, American critic Dale Pendell, Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft Brian Eno, British composer Marshall and Eric McLuhan, The Laws of Media: The New Science _ Jonathan Sterne, _The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone (editors), The Essential McLuhan Charles A. Reich, The Greening of America David Fincher (director), The Social Network _ Gilles Deleuze, _Cinema I _and _Cinema II Jean Gebser, The Ever-Present Origin Eric Havelock,_ Preface to Plato_ Walter J. Ong, American theorist Plato, [Republic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic(Plato))_ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the heart of Weird Studies, a podcast from SpectreVision Radio, you’ll find long-form conversations between Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel. Their discussions aren’t simple reviews or straightforward analyses; instead, they wander through the tangled undergrowth where art and philosophy meet, giving generous time to concepts that resist easy understanding and to creative works that fracture our ordinary sense of the world. This podcast deliberately lingers in that ambiguous space, treating the “weird” not as a genre but as a particular mode of experience-one that reveals the cracks in what we comfortably assume is real. Each episode feels like joining a deep, meandering dialogue between two friends who are both deeply knowledgeable and endlessly curious, covering a vast terrain that includes literature, film, music, and esoteric thought. It’s a show for anyone who suspects that the most profound truths are often found in the shadows, the anomalies, and the strangely beautiful. As part of the SpectreVision Radio network, which specializes in content that explores the uncanny edges of creativity, Weird Studies builds a unique community of listeners who are eager to think differently. You won’t find pat answers here, but you will encounter compelling questions and a shared sense of exploration that makes each installment a distinctive journey.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 230

Weird Studies
Podcast Episodes
Episode 210  – Angels & Daimons, with Cristina Campo and M.C. Richards [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:33:25
In this episode, JF and Phil bring together two visionary essays on the daimonic and the imaginal: Cristina Campo’s “On Fairy Tales” and M.C. Richards’s “Wrestling with the Daimonic.” What emerges is a conversation about…
Episode 209 – At Home in the Labyrinth, with Murakami and Borges [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:33:25
In this episode, Phil and JF discuss Haruki Murakami’s “Cream,” from First Person Singular, alongside Jorge Luis Borges’s classic tale, “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Together, these two stories occasion a meditation on…
Holiday Bonus: Scavengers in the Ruins of Heaven [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:47
To tide us over as we prepare for a new season of Weird Studies, here is an "audio extra," originally recorded for our Patreon supporters, wherein we discuss imposter syndrome, the eternal inadequacy of the intellect, th…