Orality and Literacy
by Walter J. Ong · first published 1982
56% recommend44% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Explores how the shift from oral speech to writing changed human thought and society, valued for its account of how writing and technology reshape cultures. Suits readers of media, literacy, and history of ideas.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
From the blurb: Profound changes in thought processes and in personality and social structures were brought about by the invention of writing and the transformation from one stage of consciousness to another: from primary oral cultures to literate ones. Walter Ong here surveys and interprets the extensive work done during the last few decades, by himself and others, on the differences between orality and literacy.
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Orality & Literacy by Walter Ong: read it in grad school, opened my eyes to how writing and technology in general feed back into societies and can change them. Influenced my work in the early web in the 1990s. A variety of books and essays by Mark Poster [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Poster]. Fairly left on the political spectrum. Marxist analyses of technology and information technology sp
on “Ask HN: Thinkers that have greatly influenced your way of thinking?” ↗…mean prejudices. I.e. This person like this treated me like that. This other person is also like this so he will probably treat me similarly. When you look at how people in oral cultures think (see "Orality and Literacy" by Walter Ong and "Myth and Reality" by Mircea Eliade), it is entirely in this pattern-centric approach. This means I meet you and I assess you based on how you conform to everyone else I have ever…
on “STFU About What Women Want” ↗…expository writing about this; if you are interested (and can manage to read an entire book) I recommend checking out Mitchell Stephens "The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word" (1) and Walter Ong's "Orality and Literacy" (2). They are somewhat dated now, but I think they really documented important transitions from antiquity to the end of the 20th century. 1. https://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/rise%20of%20the%20image...…
on “Ask HN: Do you find reading increasingly challenging?” ↗Sure, and do you see people memorizing Oddyssey-length works and reciting them anymore? Just because you live in the world of the lost does not mean there was no loss. For (much) more on this, look at Orality and Literacy by Walter Ong
on “Noam Chomsky on ChatGPT: High-Tech Plagiarism, Way of Avoiding Learning” ↗maybe unclear to you. may I recommend Orality and Literacy by Walter J. Ong. which talks about how text and writing transformed human culture the point (which I learned from the book) is how writting transformed human culture but did not define it, humans have…
on “Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago” ↗Walter J. Ong's Orality and Literacy is an illuminating read. One benefit of orality is that the speaker can defend or clarify their words, whereas once you've written something, your words are liable to be misinterpreted by readers without…
on “Metacognitive laziness: Effects of generative AI on learning motivation” ↗…academic support for the ancient impact of "archival" if we can consider a broader definition for it, namely: linguistic works such as stories, poems, songs etc. A classic study of this is Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word https://monoskop.org/images/d/db/Ong_Walter_J_Orality_and_Li... The basic idea is that say, lyrics, are a technological innovation that "stores" information across time…
on “Bonobos use a kind of syntax once thought to be unique to humans” ↗…authorship was not reported for ~90 years (not 140!) is an inference based on the surviving material from a literary culture very different from our own, separated from us by 2,000 years. Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy is highly recommended to those interested in the question of how different typographical print culture can be from manuscript culture, let alone from oral culture (of which the 1st century Mediterranean…
on “Is the Q source the origin of the Gospels?” ↗I recommend Havelock's Preface to Plato and Walter Ong's Orality and Literacy
on “Writing is thinking” ↗…literacy, though it consumes its own oral antecedants and, unless it is carefully monitored, even destroys their memory, is also infinitely adaptable. It can restore their memory, too." Ong, Walter J.. Orality and Literacy. New York: Routledge, 2003: 15. We need not limit our knowledge and view of the world to what fits in our brain. We do, however, need to make sure that what we are putting into our brain is useful to…
on “Thomas Jefferson's Letter to His Nephew Peter” ↗…thereafter used. The 'rules' of grammar in natural human languages are used first and can be abstracted from usage and stated explicitly in words only with difficulty and never completely. --Walter Ong [Orality And Literacy]
on “Evolving “nofollow” – new ways to identify the nature of links” ↗…thereafter used. The 'rules' of grammar in natural human languages are used first and can be abstracted from usage and stated explicitly in words only with difficulty and never completely. --Walter Ong [Orality And Literacy]
on “The Next 50 Years of Databases (2015)” ↗…time, according to The Verge: The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier by Bruce Sterling. This book chronicles the early days of the internet and the rise of hacking culture. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word by Walter J. Ong. This book explores the impact of technology on human communication, from the invention of writing to the rise of the internet. Disciplined Minds: A Critical…
on “The greatest tech books of all time” ↗…up mythical tale of the past. why? it's easier to remember in oral cultures people just re-adjust their memory, subconsciously[1] in written culture, people burn books, driven by their leaders. [1] "Orality and Literacy" by Walter J. Ong, An american jesuit monk and academic.
on “The past is not true” ↗…really do believe this. software will eventually change the very nature of human language and hence of human thought I picked up this line of thought from an academic Walter J. Ong who wrote a book "Orality and literacy" in which he argues that literacy (written word) changed how we think. so I just extend that reasoning. I think that software constitutes a larger change in humanity's thought than the printing press;…
on “No Fakes Act wants to protect actors and singers from unauthorized AI replicas” ↗