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Understanding McLuhan
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06614_Field_TCUM T179.txt
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1996-04-10
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854b
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16 lines
Prince Modupe wrote of his encounter with the written
word in his West African days:
The one crowded space in Father Perry’s house was
his bookshelves. I gradually came to understand that the
marks on the pages were trapped words . Anyone could
learn to decipher the symbols and turn the trapped words
loose again into speech. The ink of the print trapped the
thoughts; they could no more get away than a doomboo
could get out of a pit. When the full realization of what
this meant flooded over me, I experienced the same thrill
and amazement as when I had my first glimpse of the
bright lights of Konakry. I shivered with the intensity of
my desire to learn to do this wondrous thing myself.
In striking contrast to the native’s eagerness, there are