work
The 1973 film McLuhan singled out, on Bob's account, as being about possession by the modern media environment — literally possessed. In dialogue 65 it sits at the head of a line the pair trace from the blob and the body snatchers to every contemporary film about a monstrous situation, all of them read as the same environment recognizing itself. New to it — dialogue 65.
Across the dialogues
65
Given McLuhan''s own reading — the 1973 film taken by him as being about possession by the media environment, literally, which makes it the breakthrough picture of the monster-movie line
The film is dated as the turn in McLuhan's own film references, after which the monstrous stops being a genre and becomes the subject.
"Beginning with The Exorcist, that was the breakthrough movie he would talk about in 1973."
The reading is reported as unqualified — not a metaphor for media influence but a description of what the audience was watching happen to itself.
"when The Exorcist came out, he said, it's about everybody being possessed by the modern media environment. Literally possessed."
Connections
connects toAndroid Meme
McLuhan's possession reading is the session's clearest popular image of the meme at work.