these ancient rhetoricians. So for him it was a 
natural progression, I think, from studying 
literature and language to cultural analysis. I think 
perhaps for me, I didn’t really fully become plugged 
into that until I started to re-acquaint myself with 
McLuhan while I was doing the biography.


Q:  Did academics resent his trespassing into other 
fields?

A:  Oh yeah, they thought that he was very 
cavalier about facts, he was never at pains to 
“substantiate” his statements, and for a lot of