# The Medium is the Massage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 28, 2003, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-medium-is-the-massage/191420 "2003-07-28T12:33:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-medium-is-the-massage/191420/21 "2016-09-23T02:56:56Z")
Is this a whoosh or did you not make it to post #2? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-medium-is-the-massage/191420/22 "2016-09-23T03:47:02Z")
Post #2 may not be the whole story, the more complete truth perhaps illuminating the gray area between intent and accident: According to McLuhan biographer W. Terrence Gordon, “by the time it appeared in 1967, McLuhan no doubt recognized that his original saying had become a cliché and welcomed the opportunity to throw it back on the compost heap of language to recycle and revitalize it. But the new title is more than McLuhan indulging his insatiable taste for puns, more than a clever fusion of self-mockery and self-rescue – the subtitle is ‘An Inventory of Effects,’ underscoring the lesson compressed into the original saying.” (Gordon, p. 175.) However, the FAQ section on the website maintained by McLuhan’s estate says that this interpretation is incomplete and makes its own leap of logic as to why McLuhan left it as is: “Why is the title of the book _The Medium is the Massage_ and not _The Medium is the Message_? Actually, the title was a mistake. When the book came back from the typesetter’s, it had on the cover ‘Massage’ as it still does. The title was supposed to have read _The Medium is the Message_ but the typesetter had made an error. When McLuhan saw the typo he exclaimed, ‘Leave it alone! It’s great, and right on target!’ Thus, there are now four possible readings for the last word of the title, all of them accurate: Message and Mess Age, Massage and Mass Age.” > **[The Medium Is the Massage | Origin of the title](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Medium_Is_the_Massage#Origin_of_the_title)** > > The title is a play on McLuhan's often-quoted phrase "The medium is the message." The book was initiated by Quentin Fiore. McLuhan adopted the term "massage" to denote the effect of numerous media in how they 'massage' the human sensorium. > > According to biographer, W. Terrence Gordon: ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-medium-is-the-massage/191420/23 "2016-09-23T15:56:51Z")
Probably not more than a handful of people today know the difference between _Understanding Media_, a dense 350-page history of technology demanding rereading, and _The Medium is the Massage_, a slim 100-page paperback that is mostly pictures, with a few paragraphs of semi-profound text. Of course a pun is the proper name for it, even if the pun were accidental. It’s a book that ends with a _New Yorker_ cartoon of a son (complete with guitar) earnestly explaining McLuhan to his dazed father holding a book in his floor-to-ceiling library. > [@](#): > > “You see, Dad. Professor McLuhan says the environment that man creates becomes his medium for defining his role in it. The invention of type created liner, or sequential thought, separating thought from action. Now, with TV and folk singing, thought and action are closer and social involvement is greater. We again live in a village. Get it?” How many things sound even better 50 years after they were printed? Ignore _The Medium is the Massage_. Read his earlier work when he still had something to say. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-medium-is-the-massage/191420/24 "2016-09-23T17:20:30Z")
Why would I need to read his books? I’m already very well familiar with the medium of books, so there isn’t anything new for me in them. Unless, of course, it’s possible that his message in the books was something other than the medium. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-medium-is-the-massage/191420/25 "2016-09-23T19:26:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Why would I need to read his books? I’m already very well familiar with the medium of books, so there isn’t anything new for me in them. > > Unless, of course, it’s possible that his message in the books was something other than the medium. Cute. But in a really, really dumb way. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-medium-is-the-massage/191420/27 "2016-09-24T13:01:08Z")
Spam by **neelam** reported. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-medium-is-the-massage/191420/28 "2016-09-24T13:03:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Cute. But in a really, really dumb way. Hey, it makes more sense than the gobbledygook in that cartoon caption. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-medium-is-the-massage/191420/29 "2016-09-24T13:06:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Cute. But in a really, really dumb way. Hey, it makes more sense than the gobbledygook in that cartoon caption. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-medium-is-the-massage/191420.md?page=1)