that is to say, if it happens that every single artifact man ever made has this character, that is to say that he is dealing with a rational universe because metaphors have a reasonable proportion in them. Metaphors are proper proportional ratios.

Forsdale: You’re dealing with a patterned universe in which these four qualities you hypothesize always occur, and that’s as close to, or the same as, rational.

McLuhan: Yes, they are rational, not in the logical sense, but in the analogical sense. Four parts are analogy, and three parts are logic. Logic has a three part structure. Metaphor has a four part structure. Three part structures are like simile, snectomy, metonomy; these are three parts. Metaphors are four parts, they’re not logical, they’re