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Light On Light Through

You'll hear a little of this and lot of that on Light On Light Through - my reviews of great television series and movies, my interviews with authors and creative media people and their interviews of me, my media theory and political commentary, thoughts about my favorite cars and food and space travel, discussions of my music, and a few of my readings from my science fiction stories. In the first years, starting in 2006, I put up a new episode at least once a month.  More recently, it became more or less often than once a month, usually less often.  But in the Summer of 2020, I began getting more in the mood to podcast, and on 17 October 2023, I began publishing a new episode of the podcast every Tuesday at 12:01 pm -- a minute after Noon (New York time).  - Paul Levinson 

24 October 2021: Interview about Light On Light Through podcast

26 December 2023: Chuck Todd interviews Paul Levinson about Alternate Realities on The Chuck Toddcast  

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Practical Rhyme

Aug 15, 2007

I was thinking about rhymes  - not poetry, necessarily, but just rhyming, and how it originated in our history, in our language.

Marshall McLuhan provides a clue, as he does for so much in communication: lots of things that we regard as art forms or sports, McLuhan says, started out as very practical technologies.   For example, horseback riding was once just a practical way to travel.   The automobile made horseback riding into a sport, even an art-form.

I first heard McLuhan say this back in the mid-1970s.  Since then, I've come with examples of my own.  For example - delicatessen.  Ham and corned beef started out as ways of preserving meats.  Once refrigeration came along, we no longer needed that spicing for preservation - but we liked the taste so much, we kept on eating and enjoying the delicatessen - it had become an art form.  Or take convertible cars: in the days before air conditioning, we rolled the roof down to keep cool.  Now we don't need to do that to be cool, physically - but we like our convertibles because we look cool, driving around in them.

And rhyme?   Well, think about it.  Before writing was invented, our ancestors had to rely completely upon their memories.   In these oral cultures, anything that enhanced the power of memory, helped it work better, was welcome.

Rhymes ... the Velcro of the mind...


Digital McLuhan