Medium is the Massage
Сегодня я узнал, что книга Маклюэна “Medium is the massage” действительно называется именно так. Все годы, прошедшие с момента моего знакомства с Маклюэном, я провёл в уверенности, что англоязычные источники, которые ссылаются на книгу, указывая Massage вместо Message — бессовестно ошибаются и вообще задумали оскорбить моего внутреннего граммар-наци или просто издеваются над нами, простыми существами с синдромом навязчивых состояний (проще говоря, OCD-фриками).
Так нет же! На самом деле всё было иначе!
The title is a play on McLuhan’s oft-quoted saying “The medium is the message”. The book was initiated by Quentin Fiore. McLuhan adopted the term “massage” to denote the effect each medium has on the human sensorium, taking inventory of the “effects” of numerous media in terms of how they “massage” the sensorium.
According to McLuhan biographer W. Terrence Gordon, “by the time it appeared in 1967, McLuhan no doubt recognized that his original saying had become a cliché and welcomed the opportunity to throw it back on the compost heap of language to recycle and revitalize it. But the new title is more than McLuhan indulging his insatiable taste for puns, more than a clever fusion of self-mockery and self-rescue — the subtitle is ‘An Inventory of Effects,’ underscoring the lesson compressed into the original saying.” (Gordon, p. 175.)
However, the FAQ section on the website maintained by McLuhan’s estate says that this interpretation is incomplete and makes its own leap of logic as to why McLuhan left it as is:
“Why is the title of the book The Medium is the Massage and not The Medium is the Message? Actually, the title was a mistake. When the book came back from the typesetter’s, it had on the cover 'Massage’ as it still does. The title was supposed to have read The Medium is the Message but the typesetter had made an error. When McLuhan saw the typo he exclaimed, 'Leave it alone! It’s great, and right on target!’ Now there are possible four readings for the last word of the title, all of them accurate: Message and Mess Age, Massage and Mass Age.”
С одной стороны, чудесная история о свободе формы.
С другой, OCD-фрики стенают в ужасе, потому что все варианты правильные. А в мире определённости так ведь не бывает, слишком обширное пространство возможностей получается, нам в нём тяжело. Сквозняки, за всем не уследишь.