academics and professors the whole object of the 
game is to make an assertion, let’s say, then back 
it up with ten-foot notes, define your terms, all 
this kind of very, well as we say, academic stuff 
McLuhan had no patience for whatsoever.

If a fact was wrong, well, it had sparked off an 
interesting insight on his part, so he didn’t want to 
be picked at or cross examined as far as his 
information or his sources. A lot of it professors 
hated that, and in fact when I was doing the 
biography I noticed some would say, “Oh, he was 
very stimulating,” but they said it as if it were sort 
of frivolity on his part. As if they could be