Tech Blog

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Today I review a "book." No, seriously. I know we all got into techy stuff so we wouldn't have to do anything as boring as look at "words" on bundles of "paper," so much so that you may just be wondering what a "buk" even is. Well, it is a medium, under which a message can be delivered. Or wait... is the medium the message itself?

Ha ha, did you see what I did there? Well, whether you did or didn't, I have to say that if you're a person who likes to think about technology, social media, its effect on people and society or, hell, if you just like to think in general, a knowledge of Marshall McLuhan is essential.

You can find out about McLuhan, of course, at Wikipedia , but there's a value (I think) in the biography form, and Penguin recently published a very handsome little hardback volume, Extraordinary Canadians: Marshall McLuhan by Douglas Coupland, which I recently devoured (not literally.)

I was interested in it because it's written by Douglas Coupland, a writer I have a sort of, hmm,  like/hate relationship with. Didn't really enjoy Generation X, but really liked Girlfriend in a Coma and Microserfs, but hated (hated hated!) jPod.

Unlike the deeply self indulgent jPod, the biography requires Coupland to write extensively about someone in an understandable manner, and he manages admirably, with even his quirkiest stuff tending to have a point. Admittedly, he does wander off into two or three anecdotes about himself that are just terrible, and even worse reprints two short stories from Generation A (which add absolutely nothing) but when he's recounting McLuhan's life and influences, or describing the effect he had on the world, this book really is rather fantastic. As McLuhan famously said, the medium is the message, and Coupland is playful with that but also makes it clear that there's so much more to the man than a few sound bites.

Ultimately, the book serves as a primer on the life of a man that, honestly, any internet user should know about (there's a reason he's Wired magazine's patron saint) and if you already know of his work, this offers some interesting new thoughts and a unique and (I'll admit it) worthy perspective from Coupland.