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Understanding McLuhan
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Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso
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07055_Field_TCUM T620.txt
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1996-04-10
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957b
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16 lines
Telephone, All Alone Feeling Blue.” Why should the phone create
an intense feeling of loneliness? Why should we feel compelled
to answer a ringing public phone when we know the call cannot
concern us? Why does a phone ringing on the stage create
instant tension? Why is that tension so very much less for an
unanswered phone in a movie scene? The answer to all of these
questions is simply that the phone is a participant form that
demands a partner, with all the intensity of electric polarity. It
simply will not act as a background instrument like radio.
A standard practical joke of the small town in the early
days of the telephone draws attention to the phone as a form
of communal participation. No back fence could begin to rival
the degree of heated participation made possible by the
partyline. The joke in question took the form of calling several
people, and, in an assumed voice, saying that the engineering