McLuhan's literary criticism from 1943 to 1962, collected by Eugene McNamara and published in 1969 — the book that put the pre-media McLuhan back in print, including the Joyce essays the series reads most closely. It shares its title with the concept of the interior landscape and is not the same thing — the concept is what the phrase names, the book is where much of the early evidence for it sits. Bob uses it as a quarry, citing by page; its value to the archive is that its contents carry 1950s dates into a 1969 binding, which lets the pair date what McLuhan knew and when. Start at dialogue 77 for the page-32 Joyce essay.
Across the dialogues
Enters as a quarry rather than a book — the collection Bob reads quotes out of, with its editor's foreword supplying the line about the Kennedys
The book enters as a source of quotations rather than an argument, and it is the editor's foreword — not McLuhan — that supplies the line, which is the archive's habit with this volume.
"forward to the Interior Landscape collection, which is where this quote I'm reading comes from."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 29 (8 Jul 2021), 1:30:58
The collection's framing turns McLuhan's hot/cool distinction into a claim about political violence, which is a sharper use of the pair than McLuhan generally made in print.
"must we continue to mow down the Kennedys to show that the hot politics, that that hot politics doesn't work on the cool medium of TV?"Marshall McLuhan, read by Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 29 (8 Jul 2021), 1:31:04
Bob reaches for the book when he needs McLuhan's Catholicism stated as a theory of language rather than a biographical fact — creation from nothing offered as the structure of speech itself.
"he says somewhere interior landscape, maybe around page 118, he says for the Christian, the Christian believes that something comes out of nothing. That's language."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 31 (22 Jul 2021), 34:35
Used to date the early criticism, since its contents carry their original 1950s publication dates into a 1969 binding
The 1969 binding is opened back up into its original dates — the essay is 1953, and saying so is what lets the pair argue McLuhan had the media thesis a decade before the books that carry it.
"quoting Joyce, Mallarmé and the Press, that's in Interior Landscape, 1953 or so."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 63 (19 Jan 2023), 1:10:56
Cited down to the page for the arrest and the aesthetic moment, which makes it the source text behind a concept the series had been using loosely
The citation is exact where the surrounding talk is not, and it anchors arrest and the aesthetic moment to a printed page rather than to the series' own accumulated usage.
"and that's page 32 of Interior Landscape, the essay on Joyce."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 77 (9 Nov 2023), 2:35:12
Connections
McLuhan's literary criticism 1943-1962, collected and edited by Eugene McNamara in 1969.
Shares its title with the concept; the book is the 1969 collection, the concept is what the phrase names.
The Joyce essays are the part of the collection the series reads most, especially "Joyce, Mallarmé and the Press."