μ
"The stadium tannoy blurts the massage,"1
"the network on our nervous system,"
connecting data time chatter from 1936 to this chimera line.
McLuhan clan world transformed
by the electric blanket,
acoustic spice must flow to the inner and outer.
Increasingly blurred vision
where boundaries fizz.
Immersion\!
"We become what we behold,"2
shaped by the media we consume,
the messages we receive, the signals we transmit.
Ω
Is this a new Tower of Babel fish,3
a cacophony of ancestors lost in the noise,
now picked up by antenna?4
^1 "The stadium tannoy the massage": An allusion to McLuhan's "the medium is the massage," with "tannoy" referencing the poem's title and a public address system. Marshall McLuhan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan
^2 "We become what we behold": A quote from William Blake, often cited by McLuhan. William Blake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake
^3 "Tower of Babel fish": A reference to the story of the Tower of Babel in the Bible, where God confused the languages of humanity, and the Babel fish, a creature in Douglas Adams's *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* that provides instant translation. Tower of Babel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel; Babel fish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babel_fish
^4 "Antenna": This references the phrase "poets are the antennae of the race," attributed to Ezra Pound, suggesting that poets are particularly sensitive to changes in culture and consciousness. Ezra Pound: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Pound