A distinction McLuhan discovered through André Girard in late 1958 . Light through is light coming toward us, as through a stained-glass window — passive reception, the organ of which is the ear. Light on is light reflecting off the page, produced and certified by the subject — the organ of which is the eye. Cameron identifies the priority of light through as McLuhan's key contribution to the cul-de-sac: a turn to percepts as incoming rather than to subjective certification.
Across the dialogues
Introduces light through / light on as the perceptual exit from the cul-de-sac
Burroughs is the literary equivalent — don't write from the eye; listen to the murmur of voices coming to you. That is light through.
"So listen to the murmur of the voices that are coming to you — not what you are writing on your typewriter for others."
Light through = light coming toward us (the receptive ear); light on = what we produce and certify (the broadcasting eye).
"The distinction is light through, as through a stained glass window."
The way out of the cul-de-sac runs through the abyss Nietzsche and Wittgenstein reached but would not enter — the gap of transformation: acoustic space, light through.
"What's the abyss? The abyss is the gap of transformation. Acoustic space."
The perceptual exit, stated plainly — visual space is light on (the producing eye), acoustic space is light through (the receptive ear); McLuhan ultimately wants both, but the priority of light through is the way out.
"So you have the ear is the organ of light through and the eye is the organ of light on."
Connections
McLuhan discovered the distinction through André Girard in late 1958, in New York.
Cameron's candidate exit — turning to percepts as incoming (light through) rather than subjective production (light on).
Percepts are light through — the common heritage, not the subject's production.
Acoustic space is the realm of light through — the receptive ear against the producing eye.
Girard gave McLuhan the light through / light on distinction in New York, late 1958.
Burroughs's "don't write from the eye — listen to the murmur of the voices coming to you" is, for Cameron, the literary form of light through — reception over subjective broadcast.