Blog Post #2 Question 3

 The concept of Pontypool and the “language virus” is so interesting and something I have never experienced while watching a movie but the audience and the characters in the film are only experiencing the virus from what we are hearing, so we are relying on sound to understand what is happening. In my opinion this is what made the film so eerie. The words used in the film influenced our emotions and behavior just like how words and the way they understood their message was used to spread the virus. 

In McLuhan’s chapter “The Spoken Word: Flower of Evil” he argues that language extends human capabilities but at the same time changes how we experience the world. He also argues that the way information is communicated matters just as much as the information itself. These ideas directly represent how the virus in Pontypool was spread. Speech wasn't only passing information, it was representing how we process and understand our surroundings. 

What was really interesting was that the virus targets English speakers, proving that it wasn't the sound of the infected word it was that persons understanding of the word. This made me think about the discussion in class if two people can hear the exact same sound. Two people can hear the same sound but can interpret them completely differently depending wat their language, experiences and background. The film demonstrates this by having French speakers disrupt the infection, which suggests that changing how we process language can the effect it has on us. 

Hearing a word is only one part of communication. The human sensorium involves all of our senses. Pontypool shows that the ability to understand language which is something that we rely on to connect with other is what can actually put people in danger.