Wyndham Lewis' 1948 book on America as a world-environment and its "cosmic man" — a text Cameron treats as one of the hidden hinges of McLuhan's formation. McLuhan read it around 1949–50, took its "cosmic man" and turned it ambiguous, and (in Cameron's reading) drew the germ of the global village from Lewis' early use of the word "medium." It recurs less as a book than as a lineage and a quarrel. New to it — start with dialogue 18 for the medium/global-village connection.
Across the dialogues
Enters through McLuhan's verdict on Lewis — prescient about electronic media yet stuck opposing Gutenberg space-time, and mere opposition is thoughtlessness
Cameron gives McLuhan's critique of Lewis — he foresaw the electronic future but merely inverted Gutenberg space-time, and mere opposition is thoughtlessness.
"taking the opposite side is already a sign of thoughtlessness."
McLuhan takes Lewis' optimistic "cosmic man" and turns it ambiguous — America as world environment "to the detriment of the world"
Bob relays McLuhan's 1960s verdict — America as world environment "to the detriment of the world" — the ambiguous turn McLuhan gave Lewis' more optimistic cosmic man.
"America had become a world environment."
Dated to McLuhan's 1949–50 reading — Lewis' "specific use of the word medium" (~p. 34) pointing back to Whitehead's 1932 classifications
Cameron reads Lewis' America as the "unframed" — the drama of cognition behind even the unframed — dating McLuhan's absorption of the book to the 1949–50 turn.
"you could call America the unframed, as compared to every other country that has ever been."
Read for its championing of rootlessness — Lewis as advocate of homelessness and cosmic aimlessness, the Catholic quarrel with McLuhan
Bob reads Lewis' cosmic man as an argument for rootlessness and homelessness — tradition to be "extirpated" — the point on which Lewis and McLuhan "pissed each other off."
"sort of human aimlessness of being part of a great cosmic mass that has no roots in tradition."
Named the seedbed of the global village — Lewis using "medium" before McLuhan knew the word
Bob reads out Cameron's blog note on the book — Lewis and Pound as the pair who defined the problem McLuhan felt called upon to solve, with the global village "coming out of that book."
"Lewis and Ezra Pound defined the cultural, social, political problem that McLuhan felt called upon to solve."
Connections
Lewis' 1948 book on America as world-environment — the "cosmic man" whose rootlessness Lewis championed and McLuhan turned ambiguous.
Cameron reads Lewis' use of "medium" — before McLuhan knew the word — and the book's America-as-environment as the seedbed of the global village.
Cameron's note — "Lewis and Ezra Pound defined the cultural, social, political problem that McLuhan felt called upon to solve."