Marshall McLuhan: The Canuck Savant

"I don't necessarily agree with everything I say" ~ M.M.

Marshall McLuhan has been making a comeback of sorts in recent years, thanks in part to fans like Douglas Coupland. In his book, Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work, Coupland refers to the great "Canuck Savant" as a prophet & guru who saw "the future of the future." Apart from the Montreal comedy troupe Radio Free Vestibule, who wrote "The Ballad of Marshall McLuhan", the "fuddy-duddy fiftysomething English lit professor from Toronto," as Coupland dubs him, was largely being willfully forgotten.

I'm currently reading The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) and Understanding Media: Extensions of Man (1964). McLuhan’s tone is often urgent. He has the evangelical conviction of a fresh convert and resembles Coleridge’s Mariner possessed with a story he must tell in order to validate his own existence.

One duality that animates McLuhan’s discourse is “retribalization” and “detribalization.” These are processes that have occurred throughout history with varying degrees of intensity. McLuhan felt that our electric age was particularly unique because of its capacity to accelerate sensory perception. This speed leads to a simultaneous apprehension of reality involving all the senses all of the time. The retribalization of contemporary life can be a traumatic event exposing the individual to the blasting forces of the new environment. The only way to survive is to either shut oneself off or engage in the fluid currents of each moment. To do the former is to become numb; to do the latter requires abandoning the fixed, linear modes of cognition for the flux of the present manifestation of simultaneity. One aspect of McLuhan's character that is too often overlooked is his sense of humour. I found a fascinating and at times hilarious conversation on YouTube between Norman Mailer and McLuhan from 1968:

Robert Kroetsch: The Sad Phoenician

"Any resemblance
to persons living or dead
is coincidental,
believe me." ~ Robert Kroetsch, Preface to The Sad Phoenician

Tomorrow night is a celebration in Edmonton of the great Canadian writer, Robert Kroetsch. Hosted by Douglas Barbour, it's billed as "an evening of readings and remembrances" featuring:

George Bowering
Jenna Butler
Jeff Carpenter
Nicole Markotic
Roy Miki
Fred Wah
Thomas Wharton

Kroetsch, who died in a car accident last year, was born in Heisler, Alberta. He went on to win the Governor General's Award for fiction in 1969 for The Studhorse Man and received the Order of Canada in 2004. Known more for his poetry, he authored one of my favourite collections, "The Seed Catalogue," which inspired me to work on my long poem. The month after he passed, we moved to Edmonton from Hong Kong. As I was walking along Whyte Avenue, I ducked into Howell Books and picked up a vintage copy of the The Sad Phoenician. It helped me adjust to my old/new home.

Sushi Shokunin: A Living Treasure

Next time I'm in Tokyo I'll be sure to visit Sukiyabashi Jiro in Ginza for some of the world's greatest sushi made by a certified national treasure of Japan (人間国宝). Jiro Ono is an artisan, the type of expert the Japanese refer to as a "Shokunin," or master craftsman of the trade.

I miss Japan. Yes, Edmonton may have delicious cupcakes thanks to Fuss on Whyte, but whither sushi? So I've written a poem to console myself in its absence:

Sushi

All the colours of a chef's palette
drift through the floating world
of a sushi bar

crimson
ivory
orange
and beige

The smooth flesh
of each raw mineral
flows through your lips
like a cool deception

maguro
bintoro
unagi
hamachi

They begin to melt
watery and marbled
until a bright dot of wasabi
suddenly sabotages
your freshly painted palate
in a riot of white fire

Here's the trailer for the recent film, "Jiro Dreams Of Sushi," a must see.

Bread And Roses: We Battle Too For Men

March 8th is International Women's Day. Who would have thought that in 2012 a woman's right to choose would be subjected to such nefarious attacks as the law passed today in the U.S. state of Virginia requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion? And that was considered a compromise. What Republican Governor Bob McDonnell and his merry band of cohorts initially proposed included a controversial requirement for a more invasive vaginal probe.

Then there's the debate around contraception and the abusive assault on Sandra Fluke by meatheaded misogynist Rush Limbaugh. But at least he's re-apologizing...and not allowing "phony stuff like race, creed, sex, or religion to get in the way of any racist, xenophobic, sexist, anti-Parkinsonian observations about political figures, celebrities, First Daughters, even certain individuals who like to call themselves 'the president.'"

These are issues that concern men as well as women. Sure, there's a bit of self-interest involved. As the poem/song "Bread and Roses" goes, "The rising of the women means the rising of the race." Issues of violence against women - not just physical violence - need to be addressed by men. As the backlash against women's rights and the assault on their dignity continue, vigilance now more than ever is required. These are our mothers, sisters, daughters and wives. The sooner we join them in the struggle, the better off we'll all be.

Bread And Roses

As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!

As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.

As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.

As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.

University Of Alberta: Corporate Pandering

Despite local and international outrage, the University of Alberta, led by president Indira Samarasekera, conferred an honorary degree yesterday on current Nestlé executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe. Why honor someone who has so explicitly pursued an agenda that is diametrically opposed to the public good? Brabeck-Letmathe has been consistent in his priorities; he has said it's an “extreme” view to call water a human right while advocating it be privatized as a marketable commodity.

According to the recent documentary, Bottled Life: Nestlé's Business with Water, Nestlé generates US $10 billion dollars a year with bottled water. As Kirsten Goa of the Breastfeeding Action Committee of Edmonton says, “Nestlé is trying to normalize turning water into a commodity the same way it normalized the use of artificial baby formula.”

U of A Chancellor Linda Hughes confers an honorary degree on Nestlé chairman Brabeck-Letmathe (via Edmonton Journal).

In his speech at the U of A, Brabeck-Letmathe lamented "our somewhat innate tendency to follow emotions more easily than facts" and said "no dogmatic or ideological approach will suffice to find solutions." Except, of course, the ideological dogma of so-called free markets and globalization.

We live in precarious times. Since returning to Canada from Hong Kong six months ago I've noticed an increasing collusion of government and corporate interests. Hannah Arendt, perhaps the greatest chronicler of totalitarianism's creeping influence, wrote eloquently about the dangers of the corporate state as a prerequisite to fascism. The University of Alberta has now committed to a dangerous liaison. Citizens of conscience must be vigilant and speak out relentlessly against these "dignifying" abominations. If they fall away the failure belongs not to the proactive usurpers, but to the silent enablers.

Chris Millar: Maximalist

"Although the works look psychedelic and look totally wacky, I don't use any sort of drugs at all" ~ Chris Millar

The Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton is hosting an exhibition entitled, The Untimely Transmogrification of the Problem by local wunderkind Chris Millar. As curator Nancy Tousley writes:

"A natural born storyteller, Millar sprinkles his sculptures, which are made almost entirely of paint, with visual clues to the questions of who and what, and even what might happen next, if their frozen moment in time were to melt. His paintings, on the other hand, are dense mixtures of images and words in which everything happens at once."

Everything happens at once. It's what Iranian-born German-based artist Daryush Shokof and music critic Simon Reynolds have identified as a defining aesthetic of "Maximalism." According to Shokof's "Maximalist Manifesto" (1991), maximalist art works are:

1. Figurative.
2. Politically aware, with socially critical points of view.
3. Erotic.
4. Mostly include ironic and humorous perspectives in concept or in form.
5. Not made to simply oppose minimalist works of art.
6. Open to wide views and visionary dimensions that can be fantastic, but not deformed.

Millar's works are crammed with minutiae and exacting details. It's as if Hieronymus Bosch was raised on Fruit Loops, Zap Comix and G.B.H. tunes. The day we went there was a 20-minute line to get into the exhibit's small room and people were using complimentary magnifying glasses to peruse the pieces. Some have called it hyper or hysterical realism, but as Reynolds writes:

"'Maximalism' is vague and capacious enough to contain a whole bunch of ideas and associations, but the general slant of these verdicts is that there are a hell of a lot of inputs here, in terms of influences and sources, and a hell of a lot of outputs, in terms of density, scale, structural convolution, and sheer majesty."

This seems like an appropriate response to the inflated times in which we live. In Millar's pieces everything is simultaneous and immediate - he wants it all.

Broken Virtues: University of Alberta

***UPDATE FEBRUARY 24***
My letter on this topic has been published in the Edmonton Journal. It prompted and email to me from Dr. Frank Robinson, Vice-Provost and Dean of Students at the U of A explaining, in short, that the students and police were to blame for the events of February 1. The students for not asking for permission beforehand and the police for the overkill of force. I've since responded advising the administration to quit with the finger-pointing, take responsibility and issue an apology. He wrote nothing about my concern regarding Brabeck-Letmathe’s honorary degree.

Strange things have been happening at the University of Alberta. It began February 1st when a police helicopter suddenly appeared at the window of my graduate seminar. My first thought was of terrorism. I soon discovered that the only threat was coming from my fellow students and other concerned citizens who (god forbid!) were engaging in a peaceful protest against education cut backs on a designated National Student Day of Action.

It turned out that the administration, led by U of A president Indira Samarasekera, thought it appropriate to disrupt classes and inflame resentment by ordering over 20 officers in seven squad cars and an Air-1 police helicopter to subdue the demonstration. I was certain this overreaction would be regretted and that a full explanation and public apology would be forthcoming. No such luck.

Now Samarasekera is defending the university’s decision to confer an honorary doctorate on Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman and former CEO of Nestlé, because, as she said, "This guy is an intellectual. We give honorary degrees to intellectuals of distinction, controversial or not." Controversy? Gandhi was “controversial.” The decision is a disgrace and a betrayal of the U of A’s motto, Quaecumque vera, ("Whatsoever things are true") from the Epistle of St. Paul:

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and there be any praise, think on these things.“

Brabeck-Letmathe has long been a vocal advocate for privatizing fresh water, while dismissing free public access as “an extreme” human right. During Brabeck-Letmathe’s tenure as Nestlé's CEO from 1997-2008 the company was accused of engaging in child slavery in the Ivory Coast. More recently Nestlé has again become the target of a boycott over its reckless marketing of baby formula in Armenia and Laos, where, according to Mike Brady of the non-profit organization Baby Milk Action, it has put “company profits before the health of infants and rights of mothers.”

Indira Samarasekera needs to reflect on whether there be any virtue in such positions. A world-class university does not turn police on peaceful protesters nor honor someone who advocates privatizing fresh water supplies while subjecting people to destructive economic practices. We can and should do better. Much better.