Movies, McLuhan thought, were a hot medium because they overwhelm and flood the senses. Television, the small screen, whispers and cajoles, inviting more viewer involvement and participation. That distinction, approximate even in the sixties, hardly applies now with high-resolution TV, big screens, big sound. Levinson finally gives up on the historic salvage operation because it s not important to his thesis. Not only that, it satisfies the lust for synthesis that Levinson shares with Big-Picture guys Schmookler and Kosko.
Hot print is reconciled with cool preliterate talk.
We re writing our spontaneous and democratic thoughts to each other, all the time and everywhere. We re bypassing newspapers and publishers, the rusted gatekeepers, creating and exchanging free information and art. That s all well and good, and even true up to a point. The information roads are only as navigable as our driving skills and ability to read maps. Levinson gets carried away with his notion that the Internet, by including and superseding all previous media, will be all we need for art, work, play, and conversation.