Tom, As far as I am familiar with McLuhan (also some reading from a few years back), hot media were encourage passive reception because they are so high definition, and cool were those that required audience participation. I am unfamiliar with the distinctives you gave. According to the descriptions I remember, I would classify TWL as a cool medium. Structure of juxtaposition, like that of zeugma in the 18th century, requires audience participation in order to function. I have a suspicion Eliot would want the poem classified both ways -- as a hot medium because "genuine poetry can communcate before it is understood" and as a cool medium because he _knows_ you didn't get it all the first time. Interesting question, Tom! Cheers, Will PS -- By the way, great last name! >>> [log in to unmask] 10/08/03 08:51AM >>> The premier issue of a new magazine in Canada contans a review by Lewis Lapham of a new book on Marshall Mcluhan (what else do you expect in Canada?) Lapham, among other things, made the point that Mcluhan worte his books to give people methods to resist the developments in society being driven by electronic technology. Mcluhan was a conservative who wished to preserve an older way of dealing with the world. He was a great admirer of the work of TSE. This brings up an issue which has puzzled me and perhaps someone in the group can provide me with some insight. Mcluhan distinguised between cool and hot media. Hot media tends to indvidual study and opinion and interpretation with direct arguments. Cool media is holistic. Its arguments come from collective social images and interpretation is done collectively by communities. Its arguments are highly non-linear. At least this is how I interpreted the terms hot and cool from my long ago reading of Mcluhan. By my interpretation of Mcluhan at least, TWL is a cool poem. Its arguments are not linear but exist holisitcally in images that repeat throughout the poem. It is not a poem that will surrender to the individual study that a hot medium encourages. Its interpretation can only be a collective enterprise with opinions being held and shaped collectively. I suppose my question is if there is any merit in this idea. IS TWL a 'cool' poem in the sense of Mcluhan? If so, then why did TSE hold an attraction for someone who objected to the creation of cool media? __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com