What does a Southern Louisiana fiction writer have to do with a Canadian media theorist?

Percy: 1916 Birmingham, Alabama According to Tolson, the oldest, but least popular child in the family Had an abusive parent in Leroy who passed onto him an unusual intelligence Both of their fathers were enlisted during World War 1, but neither was deployed overseas Uncle Will would often gather the family for spirited readings of his favorite poets, the Romantics in particular, and of course Shakespeare...
such readings were a vital part of daily life. The practice had a lasting effect Percys attentiveness to the spoken word has become a hallmark of his fiction, and it finds its philosophical analogue in Percys probing of the uniqueness of the act of speech and the mystery of verbal communication. (Tolson, p. 86). - before University of North Carolina, had read Conrad, Shakespeare, Roman Rolland, Santayana, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner, and Sinclair Lewis among others

McLuhan: 1911 Born in Edmonton, Alberta The first child, but according to Philip Marchand, less popular than younger brother Maurice Had an abusive parent in Elsie who passed onto him sophisticated verbal structures

mother Elsie specialized in elocution -clear, distinct, and expressive speech -which helped form his audio-centered mind Her performances and antics included the recitation of English poetry, and Marshall enjoyed and even participated in this.
[He] developed habits of speech that remained with [him] for the rest of [his] days He memorized immense quantities of poetry and was familiar with the works of the greatest English poets before he entered the university. (Marchand, p. 9)

whenever he picked up a book or a magazine, he was lost to the rest of the world Walkers powers of concentration were total. It hardly mattered whether he was in Wills noisy living room or on the crowded porch up at the Sewanee house, nothing could break the bubble of his concentration. (Tolson, p. 105)

his intense reading habits, often to the exclusion of others. If he was reading when friends dropped by, he might make a perfunctory comment about the book and then keep on reading (Marchand, p. 11).

 Went to University of Chapel-Hill and on to Columbia University, where he seemed to leisure-read more than study medicine Were extremely concerned with what it means to be an embodied soul, perhaps due to physical ailments that reminded them Conducted tuberculosis post med school which plagued him for the rest of his life Uncle Will was a touchstone for the Southern Agrarian Movement of Allen Tate and John Crowe Ransom, he encouraged these young writers
by praising them and, more important, by publishing poems in their magazines, thus lending them his established name (Baker, 1983, p. 117).

Went to University of Manitoba and on to Cambridge for English literature

Experienced intense stomach pain throughout his life Wrote 7 essays for The Sewanee Review -- edited by Allen Tate -- and others for The Kenyon Review -- started by John Crowe Ransom Admired and resonated with the Southern Agrarians, especially Tate (and he mentions Gordon and Ransom) Saw in the South and Southern Agrarians a counter-environment similar to that of Canada When Tate retired from Sewanee Review in 1946, Cleanth Brooks and Ransom recommended McLuhan for the job, calling him one of us McLuhan uses the structure and style of Brooks Understanding Poetry in most famous book, Understanding Media Regarded as an authority on Faulker by C. Vann Woodward in 1957, but disliked how there is little hope in his worldview Converted to Catholicism in 37

Percy met them and saw them often at his Uncle Wills Sewanee cottage, starting in early 1930s Caroline Gordon and Allen Tate are the first two people outside of Shelby Foote and Phin to read his first apprentice novel The Charterhouse - in 1951 Both wrote back after reading, Caroline with a long formal analysis and Tate with agreement on Percys critique of the Souths unfounded Stoicism

Met William Faulkner, read him, quoted from him often, and got annoyed by him

Converted to Catholicism in late 40s

 Found vocation and calling as a writer through seclusion with tuberculosis, existential reading, and 10 years of long hard, personal work Extremely well-read, a self-taught author who writes from a difficult, melancholy, and contemplative personal experience

transitioned into a full-blown media critic through fascination with advertising and cultural trends induced by media change Seasoned academic who lived and breathed the academic pursuit of literature and its intersection with large social and cultural trends

I remembered the first time the search occurred to me. I came to myself under a chindolea bush. Everything is upside down for me, as I shall explain later. What are generally considered to be the best times are for me the worst times, and that worst of times was one of the best. (p. 10, The Moviegoer) -- : Only in disaster does everything become clear, can you see the true state of things

For man in the Electric world, uses the metaphor of a man descending down into a maelstrom or whirlpool, where he either drowns or is able to see clearly the pattern of some shattered wood pieces floating up and out of the chaos -- : disaster, which man is always in, breeds either destruction or salvation Is concerned with how new media changes conceptions of time and place

Explores themes of time and place through characters

On p. 52 in the The Moviegoer, referring to partner who has a flair for research.. I do not envy him. I would not change places with him if he discovered the cause and cure of cancer. For he is no more aware of the mystery which surrounds him than a fish is aware of the water it swims in. Concerned primarily with the self, the individual, who is lost in the cosmos, lost in everydayness, on a search, trying to live in a difficult modern world Determined to turn readers onto the search

McLuhan often uses John Ruskins We don't know who discovered water, but we know it wasn't a fish

Concerned primarily with unconscious effects of the modern world on society Determined to have readers see the outlines of a counter-environment

 the diagnostician of the modern malaise

the prophet of the Electronic Age

Walker Percy wrote a 3-paragraph exhortation in a symposium book on Marshall McLuhans life and legacy. He finishes with these lines, The medium may not be the massage, but something is going on in its message parlor and McLuhan opened the door. He is the real revolutionary (Marshall McLuhan: The Man and His Message, Sanderson & Macdonald, 1989). This is the most energy found in Percys comments on McLuhan, and one may wonder if McLuhans discovery was not much of a surprise to the like-minded Walker Percy.

Eric McLuhan provided this information about his dad Marshall: Dad read a number of Percy's things, and he often quoted from The Moviegoer, among others.I am certain there is a lot of marginalia, at least in Moviegoer. The only title you mention that I do not recognize is The Last Gentleman. The rest were around the house.

What does a Southern Louisiana fiction writer have to do with a Canadian media theorist?