Even if you don’t know who Marshall McLuhan was, you’ve probably heard the phrase “the medium is the message.” McLuhan was a Canadian philosopher whose theories about media were influential in 20th century thought and crucial for the development of media studies. But what did he mean by this cryptic phrase? There was a time in the 60’s and early 70’s when you would turn on the TV and see a whole table of people debating what McLuhan meant by a “cool” or “hot” medium, or the term “global village”, or entire phrases like “Heidegger surf-boards along on the electronic wave as triumphantly as Descartes rode the mechanical wave.” However, after fifty minutes or so it was decided that no one could understand what went through this man’s head and it was left at that. So, at the risk of becoming that one annoying media professor spitting gibberish behind Woody Allen’s ear in line for a movie theater, I will try to explain what McLuhan meant by “the medium is the message.” Continue reading McLuhan, Twin Peaks, and Lynch’s Attempt to Save Television