Focusing on the origins and evolution of language, this second edition of the acclaimed work features 37 new pages, along with a new Foreword and Afterword by the author. Logan shares insights from recent developments in his research, expanding on the themes explored in the original edition, which was honored with the Susanne K. Langer Prize for its significant contributions to the field of media ecology and symbolic forms.
Originally written in the late 1970s, this book was untouched for more than 35 years. McLuhan passed away before it went to press, but Logan always intended to finish it. Looking at the future of the library from the perspective of McLuhan's original vision, Logan has carefully updated the text to address the impact of the Internet and other digital technologies on the library.
Marshall McLuhan made many predictions in his seminal 1964 publication, Understanding Media: Extensions of Man. Among them were his predictions that the Internet would become a «global village, » making us more interconnected than television; the closing of the gap between consumers and producers; the elimination of space and time as barriers to communication; and the melting of national borders. He is also famously remembered for coining the expression «the medium is the message.» These predictions form the genesis of this updated volume by Robert K. Logan, a friend and colleague who worked with McLuhan. In this second edition of Understanding New Media Logan expertly updates McLuhan's Understanding Media to analyze the «new media» McLuhan foreshadowed and yet was never able to analyze or experience. The book is designed to reach a new generation of readers as well as appealing to scholars and students who are familiar with Understanding Media.
Logan's book is a history of language and ideas, showing how changes in oral and literary development have shaped previous civilizations. And in our own, he looks at how being digital changes our very notions of what we mean by communication, information processing, language, learning, education, and work.
Christopher Marlowe's drama, The Jew of Malta, has become an increasingly popular source for scholarly scrutiny, staged productions, and, most recently, a filmed version. The play follows the sometimes tragic, sometimes comic, often outrageous fortunes of its villainous protagonist, the Jew Barabas. In recent years the play has provoked as much interpretive controversy as any work in the Marlowe canon. This unique volume is therefore especially timely, providing fresh, varied approaches to the many enigmatic elements of the play.