Notes from the Walter J. Ong Archive

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60006522026-02-11T18:16:15.089-06:00Notes from the Walter J. Ong ArchiveA commonplace book for my work on the Walter J. Ong Collection, held by the Pius XII Memorial Library, Saint Louis University.John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.comBlogger212125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-2065930736975327142013-01-29T13:41:00.000-06:002013-01-29T13:41:06.731-06:00New Home for the Blog

Notes from the Walter J. Ong Collection is back at http://walterong.org/blog/.

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-65602562143434708232011-08-25T16:24:00.001-05:002011-08-25T16:26:25.374-05:00Moved Again

While this site remains for linking purposes, the complete Notes from the Walter J. Ong Collection blog is located at http://www.jpwalter.com/ong/.

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-25711876051840206792007-01-04T17:57:00.000-06:002007-01-04T18:01:07.477-06:00Technical Issues Solved

The technical issues seem to have been solved and Notes from the Walter Ong Collection seems to be working fine now, including publishing a RSS feed. All new posts should be there. And don't forget to check out the two-week old Walter J. Ong Collection website.

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-7006125553570569742006-12-22T16:49:00.000-06:002006-12-22T16:53:02.420-06:00Technical Problems

The move to a Saint Louis University server seems to have caused some problems that need to be worked out. Unfortunately, I do not have complete access to the server, and the library will be closed until after the New Year. Until that time, I’ll keep posting here, which may be easier to use.

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-29316291719063112006-12-22T16:48:00.000-06:002006-12-22T16:49:13.542-06:00Walter J. Ong Collection Web Site

I'm pleased to announce, on behalf of the Pius XII Memorial Library at Saint Louis University, that the Walter J. Ong Collection Web site is now live. The Walter J. Ong Collection website seeks to provide scholars, students, and researchers with information about the Walter J. Ong Manuscript Collection, to host a digital repository for collection materials, and to serve as a comprehensive

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-40020308730752284672006-12-13T14:17:00.000-06:002006-12-13T14:30:10.567-06:00Notes from the Walter J. Ong Archive has Moved

Notes from the Walter J. Ong Archive is being reborn as Notes from the Walter J. Ong Collection, and will now be hosted on a Saint Louis University server at http://ongnotes.slu.edu. The move is intended to give this blog official status and to join it with the soon-to-come Walter J. Ong Collection web site.

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-59861580589178380792006-12-12T19:57:00.000-06:002006-12-13T14:15:26.854-06:00Ong and the Ecological Age

A number of people have asked me about an Ong quote I included in a CFP in which Ong suggests that we are in an ecological age:The age in which humans existence is now framed, the age in which human life and technology so massively and intimately interact, can well be styled not only the information age and the age of interpretation, but, perhaps, even more inclusively, the ecological age, in

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1162586356762245142006-11-03T14:38:00.000-06:002006-11-03T14:39:35.536-06:00MLA 2006 Session 108: Walter J. Ong’s Orality and Literacy at Twenty-Five

Abstracts for MLA 2006 session "Walter J. Ong’s Orality and Literacy at Twenty-Five" (Session 108; Thursday, 28 December; 8:30–9:45 a.m., Congress C, Loews) are now available.Cross-posted to Machina Memorialis.

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1162047031339887082006-10-28T09:49:00.000-05:002006-10-28T09:50:31.360-05:00The Ever Present Presence of the Spoken Word

The more I read in cognitive studies, the more I find that Ong was already there, working with ideas and theories that cognitive studies is now exploring or finding to be true. Let me juxtapose two snippets I've come across in the past few days, one from Ong's "Comment: Voice, Print, and Culture" (The Journal of Typographic Research 4.1 (1970): 77-83), which expresses a common Ongian theme, and

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1162047219358890172006-10-14T09:52:00.000-05:002006-10-28T09:53:39.360-05:00On Language and Thought

Mixing Memory has a repost on cognitive science's return to linguistic relativity.Over the last decade or so, however, cognitive scientists have been revisiting linguistic relativity (linguistic determinism is probably gone for good). They've discovered that language does in fact constrain the way we perceive and conceptualize a wide variety of things, including time, space, number, events, and

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1160081612473514772006-10-05T15:53:00.000-05:002006-10-05T15:53:32.490-05:00CFP: Orality and Literacy 2.0 (1 December 2006; CW 2007)

And, finally, the 25th anniversary of Orality and Literacy CFP for the Computers and Writing 2007.CFP: Orality and Literacy 2.0: Orality-Literacy Contrasts and the Next 25 YearsAs you may know, I've organizing conference sessions for both the upcoming MLA and CCCC to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the publication of Walter J. Ong's Orality and Literacy (1982-2007). I'd like to finish this

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1158360093561461792006-09-15T17:40:00.000-05:002006-09-15T17:41:33.583-05:00Ong Sessions at MLA 2006 and CCCC 2007

With the CCCC acceptance letter earlier this week, I can now say that my plans for a series of confernece sessions celebrating the 25th anniversary of the publication of Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word is really going to be a series. I'll get a web page up with abstracts at some point, but here's the info for both the MLA 2006 and CCCC 2007 sessions:MLA 2006108. Walter J.

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1153070826153713492006-07-16T11:35:00.000-05:002006-07-16T12:44:36.096-05:00Ong on Secondary Orality and Secondary Literacy

While Ong's use of secondary orality is well known and widely used in relation to digital contexts, his use of secondary literacy is largely unknown. The term's obscurity comes as no surprise as it's buried in a 1996 interview in Composition FORUM (Kleine, Michael, and Fredric G. Gale. “The Elusive Presence of the Word: An Interview with Walter Ong.” Composition FORUM 7.2 (1996): 65-86):“When I

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1152974738672326992006-07-15T09:15:00.000-05:002006-07-16T12:52:47.363-05:00Schmandt-Besserat on Writing and Consciousness

Critiques of Ong's and others' account of orality and literacy contrasts, especially those leveled by Beth Daniell, sometimes cite Denise Schmandt-Besserat's monumental Before Writing and other works as evidence their theory. This argument is, of course, based on a misreading of Ong, Schmandt-Besserat, or both, and, in fact, as I'm sure I've mentioned here before, Ong himself thoroughly

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1149975434838016242006-06-10T16:34:00.000-05:002006-07-13T12:03:05.396-05:00Ong Orality-Literacy Contrasts Bibliographies

As I mentioned a few days ago, I've compiled both a long and short bibliography of Ong's publications on oral-written-print-electronic contrasts. In addition to the two versions, there's an introduction which offers some important qualifications. As the introduction explains, while extensive, the long bibliography is not comprehensive, and while highly selective, the short bibliography is not

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1148334121287029432006-05-22T16:41:00.000-05:002006-05-22T16:56:42.623-05:00Computers and Writing 2006 Presentation Bibliography

I thought I'd post my bibliography handout, which goes with my Computers and Writing 2006 presentation "Ong’s Digital Turn: Published and Unpublished Writings after Orality and Literacy." There should be streaming video archives of a number of the presentations at http://richrice.com/cw/website. On it are a number of unpublished material found in the archives.Select Bibliography for "Ong’s

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1148135600915191362006-05-20T09:30:00.000-05:002006-05-20T09:33:20.943-05:00Ong at MLA 2006

MLA has accepted my panel "Walter J. Ong's Orality and Literacy at 25," which I hope will be the first of a series of 25th anniversary celebrations for the book. MLA's on board, Computers & Writing 2007 will likely be a go, so now it's up to CCCC. Steve may be right: 2007 just might be the year of Ong.The MLA panel's three papers and presenters are:"Orality, Literacy, and Ong's Asymmetrical

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1164225498637494022006-03-29T17:38:00.000-06:002006-11-22T14:01:32.386-06:00Verba Volant, Scripta Manent

From "Renaissance Ideas and the American Catholic Mind" (Thought 29.4 (1954): 327-356):In the ancient world, language had been bound less to writing and thus less to space, but rather to time, for language had there been felt primarily as something uttered, not as something recorded. Verba volant, scripta manent. Spoken words, like time itself, fly. Only when speech is no longer an utterance but

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1164224074468008142006-03-29T17:29:00.000-06:002006-11-22T13:34:34.470-06:00Catholcism and the Social Sciences

In a letter to William F. Lynch, S.J., editor of Thought, dated June 21, 1954 (found in the "Renaissance Ideas and the American Catholic Mind" files), Ong writes:Related to this theme is that you deal with on p. 20--which reminds me somewhat of Piere Teilhard--namely the necessity for a deeper penetration of the mysteries and realities of man in order to make possible the greater penetration of

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1164223584052593012006-03-29T16:03:00.000-06:002006-11-22T13:26:24.053-06:00Musings

Since I've had difficulty in getting offprints of my own work, I'm often struck by the number of offprints, even full issues, Fr. Ong had sent to people. Requests weren't always filled or filled in full, but they often were. For instance, Ong had offprints of "Renaissance Ideas and the American Catholic Mind" sent to 86 people and he had full issues sent to another 51 people without charge!

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1164224758111383922006-03-29T13:36:00.000-06:002006-11-22T13:45:58.113-06:00Ong on the Past

Ong has been, from time to time, accused of wanting to return to an oral past, a notion which he vehemently dismissed as a misreading of his exploration of the past. The passage below is far too early to be one of his refutations, but it does express his belief on the role of the past. From "Renaissance Ideas and the American Catholic Mind" (Thought 29.4 (1954): 327-356):In treating of humanism

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1142876842405144712006-03-20T11:44:00.000-06:002006-03-20T11:47:22.420-06:00CFP: 25 Years of Reading and Misreading Orality and Literacy (April 15 2006; CCCC 2007)

2007 CCCC Convention: Call for Proposals25 Years of Reading and Misreading Orality and LiteracyThis session is intended to mark the 25th anniversary of the publication of Ong's Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word by exploring the ways the text has been read and misread by those working in the fields of composition studies, rhetoric, literacy studies, orality-literacy studies, and

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1142573597996309712006-03-16T23:30:00.000-06:002006-03-17T09:03:24.110-06:00Orality and Literacy at 25 Update

I got 11 proposals for my planned session for MLA 2006. I'm pleased with all of them, and deciding which three to accept is proving quite a task. This is the sixth or seventh conference panel I've put together using an open call for papers, and while I've had more papers to choose from once or twice, I've never had so many papers I want to accept. We still have to see if MLA will accept the panel

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1164223513807340792006-03-06T10:22:00.000-06:002006-11-22T13:25:13.823-06:00Ong and Comics Again

There might be enough material in the collection for someone (not me) to write an article on Ong and the American Comic. Source material would likely include material from the following publication files: "Mickey Mouse and Americanism." America 65.26 (4 Oct. 1941): 719-20. "The Comics and the Super State: Glimpses Down the Back Alley's of the Mind." Arizona Quarterly 1.3 (1945): 34-48. (See also

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6000652.post-1164223458793231292006-03-02T12:41:00.000-06:002006-11-22T13:24:18.796-06:00DeMille's Samson and Delilah 2

Just about six months ago, I came across a letter from Ong to his parents discussing DeMille's Samson and Delilah. Today I found another one, this time in the corresponsence files for the article "Kafka's Castle in the West." In this new letter, Ong writes:Next month DeMille's Samson and Delilah is being released. I had the opportunity to see the scripts of this production all through the various

John Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08185659717579864049noreply@blogger.com0