Massaging the Message

Massaging the Message

McLuhan/Fiore

Quentin Fiore the author of The Medium is the Massage was a successful graphic designer at the time and worked as a visual interpreter of McLuhan’s theories. According to the essay Fiore defined The Medium is the Massage as having “no original” manuscript and the original idea was to select ideas from McLuhan’s past publications. Fiore felt the book had to convey the spirit, the populist outcry of the time to succeed.

Even though McLuhan was already a famous writer this book was difficult to sell. The Medium is the Massage was rejected by 17 publishers but finally was picked up by Bantam who produced 35,000 copies. The books success led to more copies being made in different languages. It became McLuhan’s largest-selling publication, however he found it to be irritating. The most successful aspect of the book is the way it explores the space of the book. “It’s literal scale and sequential unfolding as part of its content.”

The Medium is the Massage is inventive and readerly according to the essay and was attacked by publishers for having too few words per page and for not having a table of contents or preface. Fiore believes that the book became a kind of icon for many people; that the images, the fee of the book summed up their time. “It became a graphic expression and an approbation of their feelings and thoughts.”