Sound Sesh with Sydney #2: How Speech Became the Enemy in Pontypool

Question: Using McLuhan's medium theory, particularly his concept of the human sensorium, we can argue that the unique characteristics of speech and orality as communicative practices in "Pontypool" create the conditions for the "language virus" that afflicts Anglophones. 

In class we discussed McLuhan's theory of the human sensorium. The example of how reading print media, a sight-biased medium, shifts one's ratios towards the visual sense.Therefore, those who often read print media are wired to live visually oriented lives. This theory applied to the characters in "Pontypool" because they often received their news through the radio, which is a sound-biased medium, causing them to live very auditory-based lives when it came to receiving information. This is taken one step further in the film when oral communication becomes a corrupted, uncontrollable force; what we, as viewers, know as the "language virus." The virus spreads through conversation, infecting people once they repeat certain words. According to McLuhan, speech is a medium that typically demands less cognitive participation from its receiver as there is usually a set meaning for certain words. However, this is idea is defied once certain words that once carried stable meanings, have been obscured to breakdown communication. 

Using McLuhan's medium theory of the human sensorium, it is clear that the "language virus" in "Pontypool" serves as a cautionary tale about the power yet vulnerability of orality as a communicative practice. The "language virus" served as a symbol of the dangers of oral miscommunications. The film reflects how media can reshape experiences and exploit our senses.