An Inventory of Inventories

This looks good. Haven't read it yet but it's a compelling subject. In 1966 Jerome Agel and Quentin Fiore collaborated with Marshall McLuhan on their "inventory of effect ", the famously misspelled Medium is the Massage. Republished a few years ago by Penguin.

I think it's fair to say Medium was immediately influential, blazing a trail for a new kind of visually rich paperback book. What followed was much more than mimicry, the approach struck an immediate cord with many hungry for new ways of experiencing cultural stuff.

The Electric Information Age Book tracks the rise of this ground breaking development in publishing, that saw radical thinkers sharing ideas through the relatively inexpensive medium of the paperback…hmmm…Metathinkers, sharing thoughts and insights through new inexpensive channels?…That sounds kind of familiar…

Comments

[Scott]

It's a fabulous and very intersting book. I had no idea Fiore designed the letters on the Bell telephone.

I was also pleased to find that Shnappe and Michaels did their homework and spoke to my father-in-law, Marshall's eldest son Eric as part of their research. I'm sure they would have been interested to see the mechanical we have of the Massage book from Fiore which includes changes from McLuhan and some variations from the final published book.

[Richard]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for commenting. It does look great, I'm really looking forward to getting to grips with it. And many thanks for those background details.

[Rick Monro]

Have been working my way through this Richard (amongst another of other books), and enjoying it very much. Do you need this copy back? :)