Where the sentence comes from

What the game prints

The opening quote card says: We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us. Under that, Marshall McLuhan, and then (misattributed). The game is telling you the credit is shaky. I follow that hint instead of repeating the credit as fact.

The quote card appears before play begins and appears again when you select replay after the candle scene and end screen. If you want the plot that leads there, use the story. If you want what the camera is arguing, use the meaning page. Those are different jobs.

Blake, in the singular

The Arizona State Blake archive gives Milton at M3.29 / E97: 'he became what he beheld'. One man, Los, becomes the thing he looks at. That is not the plural proverb, and it is not about a news camera. Gamers With Glasses also connects the title to Blake, and that essay mis-cites the plate. I use the archive line, not the essay's plate number.

A McLuhan glossary entry, number 5154, lists 'We become what we behold' as oft-cited and from Blake. Entry 5112 points at Psalm 115:8. The psalm question has its own page, bible verse, because the audience is different.

The second sentence

Quote Investigator follows 'we shape our tools and thereafter they shape us' to John M. Culkin's 18 March 1967 Saturday Review article. Winston Churchill in 1943 said buildings shape us, which is a cousin, not the same line. The game's wording, 'and then our tools shape us', is a later blend. I give that blend its own page: we shape our tools.

People who typed a variant such as 'you become what you behold' usually want either this history or the game. The splitter is also known as.

FAQ