person
also known as Follett
American management theorist of the 1920s, present in the series for one phrase — the law of the situation, which McLuhan borrowed and Bob Dobbs reads as a ground formulation arrived at from business consulting. Bob's p.134 uses it to mark where most readers stop: treating the medium as mere context rather than as sensory shaping. New to her — dialogue 65.
Across the dialogues
65
Enters as the source of a phrase McLuhan borrowed twice — the law of the situation, which Bob reads as a medium-is-the-message figure/ground in management dress
The formula is given a non-literary and non-philosophical origin, which is part of Bob's case that McLuhan's material was lying around in plain sight.
"a business consultant in the 20s, Mary Parker Follett, came up with a sort of a medium as a message figure ground situation, which she called the law of the situation."
The phrase is glossed and then immediately shown to be a trap — the same question that opens the medium can freeze it into a concept.
"The law of the situation is an answer evoked by the question, what's the context?"
Connections
connects toMarshall McLuhan
McLuhan used her phrase, the law of the situation, once or twice.