
Source: 1960s, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 21
Source: 1990s and beyond, The Book of Probes : Marshall McLuhan (2011), p. 70
Source: 1960s, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 21
Source: 1980s, Laws of Media: The New Science (with Eric McLuhan) (1988), p. 74
Source: 1960s, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 66
Source: 1960s, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 61
Source: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), Ch. 1: The New Era in World Politics, § 1 : Introduction: Flags And Cultural Identity
“Most tribal religions make no pretense as to their universality.”
Source: God Is Red (1973), p. 210
The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World (1994)
Context: Until recently, it might have seemed that we were an unhappy bit of mildew on a heavenly body whirling in space among many that have no mildew on them at all. this was something that classical science could explain. Yet, the moment it begins to appear that we are deeply connected to the entire universe, science reaches the outer limits of its powers. Because it is founded on the search for universal laws, it cannot deal with singularity, that is, with uniqueness. The universe is a unique event and a unique story, and so far we are the unique point of that story. But unique events and stories are the domain of poetry, not science. With the formulation of the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, science has found itself on the border between formula and story, between science and myth. In that, however, science has paradoxically returned, in a roundabout way, to man, and offers him — in new clothing — his lost integrity. It does so by anchoring him once more in the cosmos.
“I felt the exultancy of a man just released from slavery and ready to set the universe on fire.”
"Lie Down In Darkness", This Quiet Dust and Other Writings (1982)
Context: When, in the autumn of 1947, I was fired from the first and only job I have ever held, I wanted one thing out of life: to become a writer. I left my position as manuscript reader at the McGraw-Hill Book Company with no regrets; the job had been onerous and boring. It did not occur to me that there would be many difficulties to impede my ambition; in fact, the job itself had been an impediment. All I knew was that I burned to write a novel and I could not have cared less that my bank account was close to zero, with no replenishment in sight. At the age of twenty-two I had such pure hopes in my ability to write not just a respectable first novel, but a novel that would be completely out of the ordinary, that when I left the McGraw-Hill Building for the last time I felt the exultancy of a man just released from slavery and ready to set the universe on fire.
Objection to Latinization
Interview on Helenism .net (September 2011)