Features

New Explorations Weblog is proud to be the home of these special serialized features of posts and articles:

McLuhan’s Mileau

This series will link to full, archived copies of literary articles cited by Marshall McLuhan in his published and unpublished work, as well as articles which illuminate art criticism and historical commentary of the modernist age.

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  WHERE HAVE ALL THE READERS GONE, LONG TIME AGO?

J.S. PorterFeb 17, 2025

                                    By J.S. Porter   www.spiritbookword.net for Marshall Soules, mentor and friend  Among dead readers,…

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Probe: Some Deeply Personal Reflections About My Life, and About Certain Pornstars in My Life

Thomas J FarrellFeb 17, 2025

Thomas J. Farrell University of Minnesota Duluth tfarrell@d.umn.edu Abstract: In my lengthy and wide-ranging essay…

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                  THOMAS MERTON AND THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA

J.S. PorterFeb 17, 2025

                                                                                    By J.S. Porter                                                                              porterjs@rogers.com              (for Susan McCaslin and Lynn  R. Szabo…

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The Electrical Conversion of Marshall McLuhan

Jean-François Vallée (Collège de Maisonneuve) This is the story of a personal quest. A few…

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     LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID: THOUGHTS ON B.W. POWE’S MYSTERIA

J.S. PorterFeb 17, 2025

                                                            By J.S. Porter*                                               www.spiritbookword.net                                    (for Sean Malone—poet, reader, friend) “An empty…

Remembered

This series catalogues fond reminiscences of Marshall McLuhan by friends and colleagues.

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  WHERE HAVE ALL THE READERS GONE, LONG TIME AGO?

J.S. PorterFeb 17, 20252 min read

                                    By J.S. Porter   www.spiritbookword.net for Marshall Soules, mentor and friend  Among dead readers, recently Clive James, Harold Bloom, George Steiner And before them, Edward Said and Susan Sontag Hugh Kenner died a while back, too 2003 to be…

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Probe: Some Deeply Personal Reflections About My Life, and About Certain Pornstars in My Life

Thomas J FarrellFeb 17, 202578 min read

Thomas J. Farrell University of Minnesota Duluth tfarrell@d.umn.edu Abstract: In my lengthy and wide-ranging essay “Probe: Some Deeply Personal Reflections About My Life, and About Certain Pornstars in My Life,” I draw on certain points in the work of the…

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                  THOMAS MERTON AND THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA

J.S. PorterFeb 17, 202545 min read

                                                                                    By J.S. Porter                                                                              porterjs@rogers.com              (for Susan McCaslin and Lynn  R. Szabo who inspire me with their poetic thought) ABSTRACT This article lays out some of the grounds for considering Thomas Merton as a candidate for the…

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The Electrical Conversion of Marshall McLuhan

Jean-Francois ValléeFeb 17, 202555 min read

Jean-François Vallée (Collège de Maisonneuve) This is the story of a personal quest. A few years ago, as I was writing an article describing Marshall McLuhan as the first truly “electric” intellectual,[1] I discovered that “oracle of the electric age”…

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     LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID: THOUGHTS ON B.W. POWE’S MYSTERIA

J.S. PorterFeb 17, 202511 min read

                                                            By J.S. Porter*                                               www.spiritbookword.net                                    (for Sean Malone—poet, reader, friend) “An empty page is a paradise inviting you to a feast.” “We tell stories so we won’t disappear.” Mysteria, a book of love, a book of dreams,…