but the medium and the cultural matrix within 
which the particular medium operates.” (1964, p.11)

McLuhan’s provocative ideas live on as fragments 
in the conversation about media, and in the works 
of those inspired by him. Like an electronic Humpty 
Dumpty, his influence is environmental, and cannot 
be put back together again. McLuhan’s writings 
are not productively read as a neat and tidy 
system, despite the bombastic claims of some of 
his latter-day followers to a monopoly on his 
thought. No one has such a lock—the exuberance 
of his experimental texts exceeds all attempts at 
rigid definition.