Orality and Literacy - Walter Ong

Come join Triangle Common Good in discussing Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word as we consider how the act of writing and reading differs from speech, and how this relates to recent concern about the rise of a post-literate society.

Walter Ong was a Jesuit priest and professor of literature who was an influence on famed media theorists Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman. In addition to his academic work, he served on LBJ's White House Task Force on Education.

In Orality and Literacy, Ong lays out what he believes to be how the psychology and epistemology of the written word differs from oral traditions. Crucially, he connects the development of the written word to the development of everything from our conception of universal rights, to irony and a variety of other narrative and artistic devices that have shaped modernity.

His work has found renewed interest recently as a reference point in discussions on whether we are becoming a post-literate society. The recent viral Atlantic and Substack articles linked to below both draw heavily from Ong.

Link to Digital Copy Can Be Found in Our Discord. Please visit our Discord and check the Background Resources channel for a link to the group library. Note: This is the 30th anniversary edition that includes extra commentary chapters from Hartley. You need not read these chapters.

The End of Reading is Here - Atlantic
https://archive.ph/20261010144312/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-postliterate-age/687618/

The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society - Cultural Capital
https://jmarriott.substack.com/p/the-dawn-of-the-post-literate-society-aa1