Notes: “The Mechanical Bride”

Key Terms and Main Idea

• Technical > relating to a particular subject, art, or craft, or its techniques
• Mechanical > not having or showing thought or spontaneity; automatic
• Discontinuity > a distinct break in physical continuity or sequence in time
• Provincial > of or concerning the regions outside the capital city of a country, especially when regarded as unsophisticated or narrow-minded
• Intellectual > relating to the intellect, or a person having high intellectual ability
• Symbolism > the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities
• Incorrigible > not able to be corrected, improved, or reformed
• Industrial folklore > the large belief in the passing down of ideas from the past to the present

Main Idea: The author portrays the world to be changing yet unchanging. There are those who choose to follow the attitudes and actions of society, and those who choose to be outside of the realm of conformity within society who change our world. There are also those who find meaning in everything, and those who would rather not even look for meaning. 

Analysis

I thought the author definitely allowed for many different audience perspectives from this highly educated text. Although people may have had many different ideas of the points McLuhan was trying to get across, I think they all somehow lead to the same conclusion. We can definitely see that McLuhan was connecting the past to the present and in human reaction/interaction now. I believe he saw two different types of people, one being the majority. There are those who follow along with all of the societal “rules” and those who go outside of the box and do what they want, which is truly what changes our world. The majority of the population in the world tends to follow conformity. We, humans, do not prefer to be different. There was another perspective that I saw towards the end of the article. It described how people do not realize the beauty in things, or the specific meaning of things in the first place. We can choose to find the meaning in what we are doing or seeing, but many choose to follow conformity, which restricts our ability to change and find our own personal meaning in things. 

Commentary

I was for sure confused while I read this entire article by McLuhan, and now only somewhat am understanding what he was trying to say. We went over it in class and I got a little grasp on what he was trying to say. I believe the author was intending for us to see two different (or many different) kinds of people. Those who conform, and those who do not, such as Picasso and James Joyce. There are also those who find the meaning in things and those who do not. Who are you? There was a lot of other information within the article as well, and it seemed to be a bunch of metaphors. We were able to discuss and unveil some of them, but there are just so many. The most understood metaphor was the turtle one, which describes that a turtle does not realize its beautiful shell, just as a reporter does not realize the power his article may have.