What is Faraday doing in the text?

Why is Fara­day in McLuhan’s text (The Medium is the Mas­sage)? Because McLuhan finds a happy jux­ta­po­si­tion of form and con­tent in him: it is fit­ting that one of the dis­cov­er­ers of elec­tric­ity also embod­ies the val­ues of elec­tric cul­ture that McLuhan espouses–playful, par­tic­i­pa­tory, alit­er­ate. Fara­day becomes an ances­tral prog­en­i­tor of the spon­ta­neous par­tic­i­pa­tion his medium pro­duces. Although never as fore­grounded as Guten­berg, he becomes the cul­tural foun­tain­head of the elec­tric in McLuhan’s mythology.

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