Extraordinary Canadians: Marshall McLuhan
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| Author | Douglas Coupland |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Biography |
| Publisher | Penguin |
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Publication date
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2009 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 251 pp |
| Preceded by | Generation A |
Marshall McLuhan is a biography written by Canadian author Douglas Coupland as a part of Penguin Canada's Extraordinary Canadians series. It was published in March 2011 in the US by Atlas & Company under the title, "Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of my Work!". The American edition omits the preface describing the Extraordinary Canadians series by John Ralston Saul.
This biography uses many stylistic writing techniques to make both Marshall McLuhan and his ideas relatable to the reader of this biography. The biography follows McLuhan's life from his youth in Winnipeg, through his schooling at Cambridge, and to his founding of the Media Studies program at the University of Toronto. The biography features prominent sections in which the author reflects on how his life and his ideas relate to Marshall McLuhan. From old family connections, to influences of his later works like Generation A, Coupland creates a narrative tale that follows the biographical narrative in which Coupland explores the implications on his life and the world in general that stems from McLuhan's ideas.
Coupland also uses the second person in some sections of the biography, creating an immediacy between the reader and the author that also heightens the relatability of McLuhan's life and his ideas.
The biographical movements are also framed in current technology; the section titles are different keyboard commands, such as "... return" and "... command ... shift". The functions of the keyboard commands relate to the changes happening in McLuhan's biographical narrative.
The novel features some Coupland staples, such as the long lists of repeating, yet changing, words, and vignette-like personal stories which are similar to those found in his other non-fiction works, such as Souvenir of Canada.
Other interesting inserts are the current auction prices for copies of McLuhan's books, as well as many quotes from or about McLuhan. There are also MapQuest derived directions of different places and travels that McLuhan made, which creates a modern relatability of the distances and locations in the biography.
This biography has many themes. As noted by Coupland, there are other biographies of McLuhan which delve into more personal details, such as the stories of his children and wife. This biography is mostly focused on McLuhan as a man, and the ideas that man created. The biography follows the genesis of his ideas from conception to production to reception, and their effect on him as a person, and how they have shaped the perceptions of the world since.
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