"Here again, it was the printing press that made possible the re-creation of the classic past by mass production of its literature and texts. The establishment of a mechanical and abstract time pattern soon extends itself to periodic alteration of clothing styles, much in the same way that mass production extends itself to periodic publication of newspapers and magazines." (Understanding Media, page 154)
Marshall explains who we have to thank for faux history, the spark that ignites the "classic past" in the imaginations of millions, the cycle for nostalgia that keeps those in Epcot's France or Las Vegas's New York busy. Along the "re-creation" came re-vision, and education invariably involved the warp and woof of subjective excursion.
And while Canadian fashion sense has never been the cutting edge, McLuhan ought to have made it perfectly clear that Johannes's well deserved "inventing printing" accolades rather eclipsed his accomplishments in the world of clothing design, leaving a great five o'clock shadow on the jowl of history. As McLuhan later
Map of Epcot and Louis XIV Chair
expounds, drawing on the sad remnants of what must have been reams of primary sources, after hours, once the bible quota had been filled, Gutenberg would often retire to his inner sanctum to work on fabric patterns, yet another one of his boundless passions. A mind like a restless tiger, pacing back and forth in the cage of his skull, peering out from eyes like iron bars of a cage with a tiger inside, Gutenberg's imagination was in constant motion, and the patterns he designed would be industry standards for decades to come.
Still today, there are a number of adherents to the theory that Gutenberg's distinctive fingerprint adorns the pair of Louis XIV chairs that McLuhan himself placed front parlor sometime after achieving his own personal mark of success. According to a certain biography, McLuhan spent much of the summer of '74 gazing at the upholstery, correlating Gutenberg's rather haphazard pattern collection into a coherent calendar, suggesting this for now, that for later, and the other for then again. Just like the Episcopal vestry, colors and styles maintained rotational ascendency, no white after Labor Day, black for a funeral, salmon is in this year. Anything you say Marshall, you're leading the parade.
Reality Television
"Much in the same way, the Gutenberg technology created a vast new republic of letters, and stirred great confusion about the boundaries between the realms of literature and life." (Understanding Media, page 140)
In much the same way as computer technology, today, belies its promise of the paperless office, to no little delight of the Weyerhauser shareholders, by allowing anyone to print anything at any time,
The Indian Minister of Paperwork
Gutenberg's mechanized printing press created its own backlash of hand-crafted red tape. Gutenberg, perhaps spurred by the promise of infinitely repeatable information, demanded that records be kept of every official action: a stenographer was on hand in the print shop during all hours, cataloging any and all office goings-on, following Gutenberg around like a publishing Igor, keeping a detailed log of everything he ate, who he talked to, where he went, what he did when he got there, where he sat, what they both were wearing, where and what he shat, who he slept with, what he bought, when he nodded off at night, and what he mumbled at four in the morning.
Gutenberg himself took great interest in his catalog, though this itself was a mixed bag, because, somewhat ironically, the more time that Gutenberg spent checking and reviewing the detalied records of his own actions, the less he actually did, and the more subtle and irrelevant the record keeping became. It created quite the conundrum for Gutenberg's catalog team, who ended up grasping at the smallest straws: mid-afternoon, scratched nose; early-late-mid-afternoon, jogged left foot repeatedly up and down at roughly 15 times per inhalation; blinked; blinked; thumbed through pages VII to XI of yesterday's catalog; stared at the bottom third of the southwest wall; went to the bathroom, though nothing came of it.
We can perhaps infer what McLuhan meant when he said, less famously, that "the medium is the massage" by applying this self-same logic to current media trends. Lo and behold, coming soon! Reality Show, The Reality Show: the latest program features one dozen hot, young television producers who must create a hit reality show or get fired by their network executive. Watch them struggle to come up with ideas for a reality show. Watch the attrition as ratings plummet. Cheer on your favorite as they fight for your attention.
