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a comprehensive resource on the life and works of Walter J. Ong, S.J. Our initial digital offerings include a number of unpublished lectures (typescripts saved as .pdf files), including those from his Lincoln Lecture Series in Africa in 1974, an audio recording of a lecture, and a number of photographs of Walter J. Ong and his family.
Of particular interest to Kairosnews readers might be the unpublished lecture "Secondary Orality and Secondary Visualism."
any good intros, online resources for related writers?
Yeah I remember reading related stuff when I was an undergrad. Anyone know a good site or sites for reading about the theories presented by similar writers such as Marshall McLuhan, Eric Havelock, David R. Olson, etc.? Like a meta-guide on media theories, or wiki.
I also have liked the work of Don Ihde (such as Technics and Praxis), but that is more phenomenology and philosophy of technology rather than media theory.
Exciting Stuff
Wow, John, this is really impressive. I know you've been working on this project for a long time, and I'm happy to see you've made so much progress. I'll never forget reading Walter J. Ong's Orality and Literacy back in the day and praising it for its balance of deep insights and readable prose. I'd take Ong and Levi-Strauss over Delueze and Guittari any day.
I'm curious if you have plans to create resources like this for other scholars.
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Thanks Matt. There's still
Thanks Matt.
There's still way too much work to do, both in terms of processing and describing the physical collection -- to say nothing of perservation efforts (lots of acidic paper, non-stainless steel paper clips and staples, etc.). And digitizing and creating a digital collection like this is a whole other issue. My work with the project is slated to end June 30 even though there inital processing work won't be finished. While my role is as the primary "processing archivist," I'm really nothing more than a student employee of the library, which is, technically speaking, a downgrade from my initial position as "Walter J. Ong, S.J., Manuscript Collection Research Assistant." My life as a student is ending, I'm searching for a faculty position or post-doc, and, as I understand it, there is no place for me in the archive except as a patron once June 30 hits. It's not as if I'm being kicked out on my ass, however. Without being aware of exactly how much work would be involved, the Library created a two-year position, and they even extended it a third year. The work, of course, will continue beyond June 30. It will just continue without me. I expect to bring more of Ong's unpublished work to light and to create other Ongian digital resources, but that will be done as a scholar rather than as archivist.
As for taking on other scholars in this same way, I doubt it. I was in the right place at the right time with the right background and training so I landed the gig.