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Understanding McLuhan
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Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso
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08363_Field_TCGG T128.txt
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1996-04-10
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898b
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16 lines
we did discover was that the cartoon went down very
well. This puzzled us until we found out that puppetry is
quite a common pastime.
But there is more to this point than Wilson supposes. Had
TV been available he would have been amazed to discover how
much more readily the Africans took to it than they did to film.
For with film you are the camera and the nonliterate man
cannot use his eyes like a camera. But with TV you are the
screen. And TV is two-dimensional and sculptural in its tactile
contours. TV is not a narrative medium, is not so much visual
as audile-tactile. That is why it is empathic, and why the
optimal mode of TV image is the cartoon. For the cartoon
appeals to natives as it does to our children, because it is a
world in which the visual component is so small that the viewer
has as much to do as in a crossword puzzle. (8)