Four epochs of history The Gutenberg Galaxy

1 4 epochs of history

1.1 oral tribe culture

1.1.1 village


1.2 manuscript culture
1.3 gutenberg galaxy

1.3.1 movable type


1.4 electronic age

1.4.1 global village

four epochs of history

the book may regarded way of describing 4 epochs of history:

for break between time periods in each case occurrence of new medium responsible, hand-writing terminates oral phase, printing , electricity revolutionizes afterwards culture , society.

given clue of hand-writing terminates oral phase 1 expects printing terminate manuscript phase , electrifying bring end gutenberg era. strangeness of use of electrifying entirely appropriate in mcluhan context of 1962. internet did not exist then.

mcluhan himself suggests last section of book might play major role of being first section:

the last section of book, galaxy reconfigured, deals clash of electric , mechanical, or print, technologies, , reader may find best prologue.

oral tribe culture

the oral tradition not dead. in schools or @ home or in street, children taught learn heart, memorize, nursery rhymes or poems or songs, can said participate in oral tradition. same true of children belonging religious groups taught learn prayers. in other words, childhood 1 of ages of man (in shakespeare s sense) , oral tribal culture. transition oral culture takes place when child taught read , write. child enters world of manuscript culture.

mcluhan identifies james joyce s finnegans wake key unlocks of nature of oral culture.

of particular importance oral culture art of memory.

the village

in commenting on soviet union, mcluhan puts advertising , pr community on par them in far both concerned access media , results. more remarkably asserts soviet concern media results natural oral society interdependence result of instant interplay of cause , effect in total structure. such character of village, or since electric media, such character of global village.

manuscript culture

the culture of manuscript (literally hand-writing) referred mcluhan scribal culture.

medieval illumination, gloss, , sculpture alike aspects of art of memory, central scribal culture.

associated epoch art of memory (in latin ars memoriae).

gutenberg galaxy

finnegans wake: joyce s finnegans wake (like shakespeare s king lear) 1 of texts mcluhan uses throughout book in order weave various strands of argument.

throughout finnegans wake joyce specifies tower of babel tower of sleep, is, tower of witless assumption, or bacon calls reign of idols.

movable type

his episodic , rambling history takes reader pre-alphabetic tribal humankind electronic age. according mcluhan, invention of movable type accelerated, intensified, , enabled cultural , cognitive changes had been taking place since invention , implementation of alphabet, mcluhan means phonemic orthography. (mcluhan careful distinguish phonetic alphabet logographic/logogramic writing systems, hieroglyphics or ideograms.)

print culture, ushered in gutenberg press in middle of fifteenth century, brought cultural predominance of visual on aural/oral. quoting approval observation on nature of printed word prints , visual communication william ivins, mcluhan remarks:

in passage [ivins] not notes ingraining of lineal, sequential habits, but, more important, points out visual homogenizing of experience of print culture, , relegation of auditory , other sensuous complexity background. [...] technology , social effects of typography incline abstain noting interplay and, were, formal causality, both in our inner , external lives. print exists virtue of static separation of functions , fosters mentality gradually resists separative , compartmentalizing or specialist outlook.

the main concept of mcluhan s argument (later elaborated upon in medium massage) new technologies (like alphabets, printing presses, , speech itself) exert gravitational effect on cognition, in turn affects social organization: print technology changes our perceptual habits ( visual homogenizing of experience ), in turn affects social interactions ( fosters mentality gradually resists a... specialist outlook ). according mcluhan, advent of print technology contributed , made possible of salient trends in modern period in western world: individualism, democracy, protestantism, capitalism , nationalism. mcluhan, these trends reverberate print technology s principle of segmentation of actions , functions , principle of visual quantification.

electronic age
the global village

in 1960s, mcluhan wrote visual, individualistic print culture brought end called electronic interdependence : when electronic media replace visual culture aural/oral culture. in new age, humankind move individualism , fragmentation collective identity, tribal base. mcluhan s coinage new social organization global village.

the term described having negative connotations in gutenberg galaxy, mcluhan himself interested in exploring effects, not making value judgments:

instead of tending towards vast alexandrian library world has become computer, electronic brain, infantile piece of science fiction. , our senses have gone outside us, big brother goes inside. so, unless aware of dynamic, shall @ once move phase of panic terrors, befitting small world of tribal drums, total interdependence, , superimposed co-existence. [...] terror normal state of oral society, in affects time. [...] in our long striving recover western world unity of sensibility , of thought , feeling have no more been prepared accept tribal consequences of such unity ready fragmentation of human psyche print culture.

key mcluhan s argument idea technology has no per se moral bent—it tool profoundly shapes individual s and, extension, society s self-conception , realization:

is not obvious there enough moral problems without taking moral stand on technological grounds? [...] print extreme phase of alphabet culture detribalizes or decollectivizes man in first instance. print raises visual features of alphabet highest intensity of definition. print carries individuating power of phonetic alphabet further manuscript culture ever do. print technology of individualism. if men decided modify visual technology electric technology, individualism modified. raise moral complaint cussing buzz-saw lopping off fingers. , says, didn t know happen. yet witlessness not moral issue. problem, not moral problem; , nice clear away of moral fogs surround our technologies. morality.

the moral valence of technology s effects on cognition is, mcluhan, matter of perspective. instance, mcluhan contrasts considerable alarm , revulsion growing quantity of books aroused in latter seventeenth century modern concern end of book. if there can no universal moral sentence passed on technology, mcluhan believes there can disaster arising unawareness of causalities , effects inherent in our technologies.

though world wide web invented thirty years after gutenberg galaxy published, mcluhan may have coined , popularized usage of term surfing refer rapid, irregular , multidirectional movement through heterogeneous body of documents or knowledge, e.g., statements heidegger surf-boards along on electronic wave triumphantly descartes rode mechanical wave. paul levinson s 1999 book digital mcluhan explores ways mcluhan s work can better understood through lens of digital revolution. later, bill stewart s 2007 living internet website describes how mcluhan s insights made concept of global village, interconnected electronic nervous system, part of our popular culture before happened.

mcluhan quoted walter ong s ramus, method, , decay of dialogue (1958), evidently had prompted mcluhan write gutenberg galaxy. ong wrote highly favorable review of new book in america. however, ong later tempered praise, describing mcluhan s gutenberg galaxy racy survey, indifferent scholarly detail, uniquely valuable in suggesting sweep , depth of cultural , psychological changes entailed in passage illiteracy print , beyond. mcluhan himself said of book, m not concerned kudos out of [the gutenberg galaxy]. seems me book should have written century ago. wish else had written it. useful prelude rewrite of understanding media [the 1960 naeb report] m doing now.

mcluhan s gutenberg galaxy won canada s highest literary award, governor-general s award non-fiction, in 1962. chairman of selection committee mcluhan s colleague @ university of toronto , oftentime intellectual sparring partner, northrop frye.