Dear Editor

...should inform McLuhan that consciousness came before books movies or television ," I would like to append that much of the greatest music, before and since the symphonic form has nothing to do with the symphony, but m speaking of this form of music the antecedents of the symphony become very relevant indeed When we are talking about the impact of the mass media we will get nowhere if we concentrate on or constantly raise questions about preliterate or prehominoid phases of society A/en Yoik City Dick Hiocins Publtslie, The Something Else Piess HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS Dr Harold Koretz ( Dear Editor" NL June 19) takes too much for granted when he makes the sweeping statement 'Modern biological knowledge has demolished the basic assumption of Western philosophy that by starting with human consciousness a rational edifice can be constructed which will outline an acceptable view of man in his universe Dr Koretz equates human consciousness with the human mind, overlooking that consciousness is merely one aspect of the mind He furthermore reduces human consciousness and theretore by inference the human mind, to "a fragmentary, limited phenomenon, a manifestation of brain activity" which is "remarkably handicapped for exploration of the traditional philosophical questions' Strange, is it not, that human consciousness is not similarly remarkably handicapped for the exploration and discovery of the biological knowledge of which Dr Koretz speaks so highly The doctor is entitled to his monistic view of the universe which reduces everything?including the human mind—to matter and energy and the interplay between the two This is determinism free and simple which negates free will and explains thought as the secretion of the brain I for one refuse to believe that my mind is no more and no less than the interaction of the billions of cells in my brain 1 believe in a duahstic universe m which there is room for more than protons and electrons I believe with Henri Bergson that while the mind uses the brain as its instrument, the mind as a psychic reality transcends and overflows the brain The concept of man's using his brain to evolve a system of ethics is no more illogical than that of his using it to discover biological or any other kind of knowledge Nor is free will inconsistent with brain activity Dr Koretz 19 free to believe this or not, as he chooses I myself feel free to believe that the consciousness that thrills to the beauty of a Rembrandt painting or a Shakespeare play is more than a ' fragmentary limited phenomenon " New Yoik City Nath\n L Bengis...

...DEAR EDITOR WAR AND DIPLOMACY Marshall Shulman s article ("The Critical Decision for Moscow NL July 3) points up the changing relation of war and diplomacy In the Age of Technology the old maxim that war is an extension of diplomacy by other means has retained its pithiness while losing its last semblance of relevance "It is not only the heightened political tension ' Shulman writes "but technological factors that are responsible for stimulating a new round m the arms race ' If I am not misreading between the lines the implication is clear that the presumed "balance of terror" is about to become unhinged * With the further refinement of anti-missile systems and penetration aids, with the prospect for great improvements in...

...missile guidance systems ' it will soon be possible to launch a nuclear attack without fear of retaliation The horror of universal destruction has been domesticated The horror of unilateral destruction may well be today s topic in a Rand Corporation seminar—with Herman Kahn as suest lecturer Nen York Cm William Landris UNDERSTANDING McLTJHAN Much respect one has for Edouard Roditi, whose letter on Marshall McLuhan was included in your June 19 issue But which McLuhan0 The authority on Wyndham Lewis and James Joyce'' The Canadian patriot writing on the wilderness'' The co-author of Voices of Literature, one of the standard high school literptuxe readers in the Canadian school system'' The very fact of McLuhan s interest in matters so different from those with which he is popularly associated from mass media and "probes," ought to lead us to question the accuracy of his popular image I recall being shown pieces of criticism attacking Ibsen for writing about syphilis and identifying him with precisely the kind of lack of integrity he was, in fact, opposed to In the context of McLuhan s larger body of work some relationship of this kind is suggested I do not recall ever reading in McLuhan that media are life or that "linear reasoning" is out of date McLuhan's subject is the mass arts, and he relates their impact to their forms Is this illogical0 His method is a very old one in pedagogy He asks his "students" (readers) questions, throws out propositions, etc These are considered by them m turn Perhaps the more logical vanent of such an essay as Understanding Media or the soon-to-be-pubhshed V erbi-Voco-V isual Explorations would be the set of notations that the thoughtful reader writes to himself in the margins of the books But would such notations necessarily make his points as incisively7 I doubt it To Roditi's suggestion that Someone The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...