McLuhan's posthumous "new science," completed by his son Eric McLuhan and published in 1988 — the book of the Tetrad. Bob reads specific pages aloud (77, 68) for images he builds on, and its final claim that a new medium "can't be charted" becomes a recurring point of contention with Cameron. New to it — start with dialogue 01 for the wheel-and-axle interval.
Across the dialogues
Enters through the p. 77 wheel-and-axle passage — the tactile "play" of the interval as the ground of figure and ground
Bob takes the p. 77 wheel-and-axle passage as the book's clearest image of the figure-ground interval — the tactile "play" without which neither wheel nor axle exists.
"The interval between the wheel and the axle has long served as an example not only of 'touch' but of 'play.'"
Mined for the double sense of "stage" — the theatrical stage where time is suspended, flipping into the credit card as one merges with electric circuitry
Bob adds a second sense of "stage" from the book's Tetrad — the entry flipping into the credit card as one merges with electric circuitry, "something no one's ever commented on."
"it flips into your credit card as your stage."
Read as a brain-hemispheres chart (p. 68) whose eleven left/right pairs Cameron folds into "humans are always on both sides"
Cameron sums the p. 68 brain-hemispheres chart Bob reads out — sequential ordering against simultaneous comprehension, and nine more pairs — as evidence that people are never on one side alone.
"humans are always on both sides."
Becomes the site of a standing disagreement — against Eric's closing "can't be charted," Bob insists the gap can be charted "if you know how to get in the gap"
Against Eric's closing verdict that the new medium "can't be charted," Bob insists the gap is chartable — Cameron holds the gap itself can't be, and that it is in fact charted continuously by every individual.
"it can be charted if you know how to get in the gap."
Read as two books at once — its closing "uncharted and unchartable milieu" attributed to Eric, and the Marshall/Eric split named as the difficulty a reader has to hold at every sentence
The co-authorship is treated as a reading problem rather than a credit question — the book cannot be quoted without first deciding whose level a sentence is on.
"one of the difficulties with laws of media is that you have Marshall at one level and Eric at another."
The doubt runs one level deeper than authorship — whether the co-author understood the material he was shaping is itself undecided.
"you always have to wonder. Where's Marshall coming from? Where's Eric coming from? Did Eric understand where Marshall was coming from? It's a very complex book to read."
Read as an admission rather than a synthesis — the closing phrase is taken as the point where the systematising project concedes, with Eric's hand and McLuhan's own vagueness both named
The last page is read as a surrender — the book that was to systematise the work ends by naming its object unchartable, which is the evidence Cameron uses for McLuhan never resolving the problem to himself.
"they call it the uncharted, the unchartable milieu, you know."
The book is graded rather than cited — a suggestion where a specification was promised, which is the evidence Cameron uses for McLuhan never having resolved the problem to himself.
"Laws of Media is much more a suggestion than it is a definition or specification."
Connections
McLuhan's posthumous tetrad book, completed and published by his son Eric in 1988.
Eric finished and issued the book; his closing claim that the new medium "can't be charted" is what Bob and Cameron contest.
The p. 77 wheel-and-axle interval is Bob's touchstone image of the figure-ground "play" without which neither term exists.