That the medium is the message is true so far as it goes. The message is direct-knowing; so it is not the content that provides for that possibility.
Direct-knowing requires participation; so when the medium encourages, requires participation - That is the aim...
Because what God most wants from us are these 'moments' of direct apprehension (sharing-in) truth, beauty, goodnesss. Each such moment is indelibly inscribed in reality... if an indelible thing was Not permanently fixed; but instead permanently present as a creative possibility.
Passive, immersive, purely emotional or intellectual assent is useless (except as preparation). Without participative moments... well we may get marks for trying (if we are indeed trying - rather than merely pleasantly marking-time or avoiding misery) - but it would a kind of encouraging rejection rather than an accepted contribution.
We must meet reality halfway, and join with it to make some new creation. And this happens in the realm of thinking, not of making.
What then of the making, what of media? It should aim to meet us halfway; we should aim to meet it halfway... Any aim of manipulation or takeover on either side will invalidate the possibilities.
This objective of mutual participation is not a kind of modesty or self-limitation, but a vaulting ambition; an insitence on taking life seriously. The preference for failure in a high goal over success in a lower.
And, of course, a different criterion of success.
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