"A series of linked essays examining the role of the public intellectual of a private bent in the age of postmodernity and post-literacy, a time when individuality and inked thoughts are being replaced by the masses and electromagnetic pulses. Four of the thinkers who pass beneath Powe's textual spotlight are Canadian—Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Glenn Gould and Marshall McLuhan de facto, Wyndham Lewis de jure—with the acerbic and eccentric Austro-Italian oddity Elias Canetti bringing up the rear. All are individuals who exemplified paradox in their manner of existence, casting their inner conflict and dualism into the physical world by means of the written word, the spoken word, the governing act, and the musical note. Frequently misunderstood, prone to creating conflict and sowing discord through their atonal and dissonant approach to a civilization settling into the totalitarianism of democratic leveling down—and dissipating into unthinking, unquestioning, malleable consumers—their flaws and faults were a necessary and vital component of their role as outlaws set against the looming conformity of the Magnetic Age, endeavoring to startle their readers and listeners and countrymen into alertness, provoke them to chariness against the messaging and massaging and manipulation of the powers at the heart of the New Electromagnetic World Order. Powe's book is fragmented, choppy, and lacking in cohesiveness—the very elements deemed most important in what constituted the output of the five individuals he examines. Always fascinating and frequently brilliant, Powe can produce lines that sizzle and crackle with literary energy and linger in one's mind long after detonation. Though I would have preferred a lengthier, more focussed tome—such was the interest generated by these intriguing personalities—that really isn't what the Canadian author was after—he wants to get the reader out of his rhythm and pondering the meaning, the value of going against the grain, of abrading the conventional wisdom; discomfort as civic duty. A worthy read."