A McLuhan sourcebook 283 The Pentagon Papers were position papers that probably were never read by anyone. Xerox is responsible for the proliferation of large committees and their position papers.—1973 Xerography makes the reader both author and publisher in tendency. The highly centralized activity of publishing naturally breaks down into extreme decentralism when anybody can, by means of xerography, assemble printed, or written, or photographic materials which can be supplied with sound tracks. But xerography is electricity invading the world of typography, and it means a total revolution in this old sphere, or this old technology, a revolution that is being felt in the classroom itself. —1965 TV TV is an integral medium, forcing an interaction among components of experience which have long been separate and scattered.—1967 The TV screen just pours that energy into you which paralyses the eye; you are not looking at it; it is looking at you.—1977 Most people were struck by the TV coverage of the Kennedy assassination. We were all conscious of great depth of involvement, but there was no excitement, no sensationalism. When involvement is maximal, we are nearly numb.—1964 TV, then, is not part of the 19th-century art-program for the reconquest of synesthesia. TV is rather the overwhelming and technological success of that program after its artistic exponents have retired.—1961 The man with a very private face makes a very bad TV image, whereas somebody that looks like an old peasant, or a very broken-down character, makes good TV.—1972 If television is going to strip us of our civilized individuality, of our separate selves, then we should close down TV. Because, as far as I know, television is incompatible with the continuance of Western man.—1972 For centuries Americans had gone outside to be alone and had gone inside to be warm and sociable. The basic pattern had reversed the custom of the rest of mankind. Suddenly, TV had brought Americans into line with Europe and Asia. Since TV, the young, at least, tend to go outside to be with people and inside to be alone.—1973 Why should the broken line of the television mosaic emphasize the sculptural contours of objects? —1960 The TV image is the first technology to project or externalize our tactile sense.—1967 In the movie you sit and look at the screen. You are the camera eye. In television you are the screen. You are the vanishing point as in an oriental picture. The picture goes inside you. In the movie, you go outside into the world. In television you go inside yourself.—1967