Don Theall's 1971 study of McLuhan — the first book-length treatment by someone inside the Toronto circle, and in this archive a double-edged one. Bob credits Theall with staying loyal to McLuhan's value longer than anyone else who knew him, and simultaneously uses the book as his benchmark for how far even a sympathetic reader falls short. Enter at dialogue 49 for how it came to be written, then dialogue 75 for what Bob thinks it gets wrong.
Across the dialogues
Given its origin story — the book exists because its author was hospitalized and bored, which turns the archive's most loyal McLuhan study into an accident
The book's occasion was medical, not intellectual — which is Bob's way of saying the first serious study of McLuhan happened because its author had nothing else to do.
"and that's when he wrote The Medium Is the Rear View Mirror while he was in the hospital."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 49 (19 May 2022), 1:32:59
The disclaimer matters more than the anecdote — the man best placed to explain McLuhan had no wish to, which is the archive's recurring account of why the explaining never got done.
"Otherwise, he never would have done it. He wasn't interested in writing a book on McLuhan."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 49 (19 May 2022), 1:33:03
Theall's position is set against his company rather than his argument — surrounded by detractors and still the promoter, which is the standing Bob grants him before spending later sessions on the book's limits.
"But he kept loyal to the value of McLuhan, way more than anybody else. And so he ends up being the promoter of McLuhan, even though he'd hung out with all the naysayers."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 49 (19 May 2022), 1:45:55
Turned from a friendly source into the measure of the standard misreading — if even Theall stopped at the artist, then the miss is not hostility but the default
Bob states the reading he means to refute, and states it fairly — the artist-as-analyst is a real thesis, and one a careful reader of the 1960s would land on.
"he says the big value of McLuhan is he drew attention to the artist as an important person in analyzing sociological situations."Donald Theall, read by Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 75 (28 Sep 2023), 1:24:14
The correction inverts the book's compliment. McLuhan is reporting a loss, not nominating a hero — and a study that reads the artist as newly important has the argument exactly backwards.
"That's not McLuhan's message. He was pointing out the artist was no longer available."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 75 (28 Sep 2023), 1:24:24
Connections
Theall's 1971 book on McLuhan, written from a hospital bed and the only one he wrote on the subject.
Bob credits the book with using "Menippean satire" on McLuhan's own terms, ahead of Eric McLuhan's study.