A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

There is something rather mysterious about the process of the “pout on” which is inseparable from communication. Badelaire’s famous phrase “hypocrite lecteur mon sembable, mon frere” captures the entire process. The reader is hypocrite in the very act of putting on the author’s poem as his mask, for in reading the poem he is perceiving the world in a very special way…
“AT the Moment of Sputnik –” (1974), typescript p 9
Year: 1974
Chapter: Putting On
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan