“Writing turned a spotlight on the high, dim Sierras of speech; writing was the visualization of acoustic space. It lit up the dark.”

— Marshall McLuhan

Source: 1960s, Counterblast (1969), p. 14

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Marshall McLuhan 416

Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor … 1911–1980

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Variant: Until writing was invented, we lived in acoustic space: boundless, directionless, horizonless, the dark of the mind, the world of emotion, primordial intuition, terror. Speech is a social chart of this bog. (p. 13)
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“Writing turned a spotlight on the high, dim Sierras of speech; writing was the visualization of acoustic space. It lit up the dark.”

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Marshall McLuhan 416

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