Blog Post #2 - Cole Donald

Question #3 

   McLuhan’s medium theory, especially his thoughts on the human sensorium, offers a sharp perspective for analyzing the "Language virus" in Pontypool. McLuhan suggests that media technologies alter our sensory priorities, highlighting some senses over others. In oral communication, hearing takes the lead, creating an immersive, shared experience. Speech becomes more than just language it’s a sensory medium that binds people together, involving not only words but also emotions and cultural settings.

    In Pontypool, the virus spreads through spoken language, suggesting that speech functions as both a carrier of meaning and a virus. McLuhan’s idea that "the medium is the message" means that it’s not just what language conveys, but the medium of language itself, that shapes our experiences. In this case, spoken language doesn’t simply deliver ideas it twists and corrupts them, turning speech into a virus. The ear, normally an organ for receiving and understanding, becomes a weak point, an entry for infection.

    The "Language virus" operates through the distinct qualities of oral communication: it’s immediate, embodied, and deeply relational. McLuhan’s theory helps us understand how the senses we use for bonding and connection can also expose us to harm. Speech, which has the ability to link minds and communities, ironically becomes the tool that spreads infection, breaking the link between meaning and communication. This shows the risk language itself poses when the medium (speech) overtakes the message (meaning), causing a breakdown in understanding something that Pontypool illustrates in a very literal way.