Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology: Studies in the Interaction of Expression and Culture

by Walter J. Ong

This collection of essays by Walter J. Ong focuses on the complex and dynamic relationship between verbal performance and cultural evolution. By studying the history of rhetoric and related arts from classical antiquity through the age of romanticism to the modern period, Ong both illuminates the past and helps explain late-twentieth-century modes of expression. Elegantly written and wide ranging, Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology traces the evolution of devices used to store, retrieve, and communicate knowledge. Ong discusses diverse topics including memory as art, associationist critical theory, the close relationship between romanticism and technology, and the popular culture of the 1970s. This book also contains essays about Tudor writings in English on rhetoric and literary theory, the study of Latin as a Renaissance puberty rite, Ramism in the classroom and in commerce, Jonathan Swift's notion of the mind, and John Stuart Mill's politics.

Genres: Philosophy

362 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1971

Reviews

[Fred Cheyunski · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Ong's Most Illuminating and Useful Books - For this reviewer, Ong's "Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology" is one of his most illuminating and useful books. During the course of the book, Ong treats the decline of classical rhetoric in the late 16th century, and the rise of dialectic or logic during the 17th and 18th centuries. He shows how romanticism and our modern technology emerged as a result in the 19th century. Ong goes on to indicate ways secondary orality and rhetoric have risen again with the proliferation of electronic technology in 20th century.

The book assembles original chapters and previously published articles. It starts with a helpful overview, "Rhetoric and the Origins of Consciousness," and proceeds to deal with topics from the different historical periods chronologically. While all the chapters offer valuable information, some provide particular highlights for this reviewer.

For instance in chapters like "Oral Residue in Tudor Prose Style," Ong describes the ways verbal expression initially persisting in printed works were giving way to more visual orientation of those such as Peter Ramus (1515-1572). He contrasts the Ramist focus on analysis and method with more traditional oratorical presentation as shown in controversy between Gabriel Harvey (1545-1630) and Thomas Nashe (1567-1601). In "Ramist Method and the Commercial Mind," Ong explains how the diffusion of Ramism had to do with its appeal to merchants and artisans with their need to keep things visible, orderly, and clear. His "Swift on the Mind" includes mention of Jonathan Swift's (1645-1745) use of diagrammatic images as well as microscopic and telescopic views as a basis for his satire. Within "Psyche and the Geometers," Ong shows the influence of Decarte's (1596-1650) mathematics and Newton's (1643 - 1727) mechanics on `Associationists' like Adam Smith (1723-1790) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) with their "trains of thought' and drives to quantify. Ong's remarks in "Romantic Difference and the Poetics of Technology" refer to the Encyclopedia of d'Ambert (1717 -1783) and Diderot (1713-1784) with its fold-out knowledge charts as illustrative of the growing information availability; he indicates that both Romanticism, with its concern with the unknown and the unique, along with an emphasis on technology, with its programmed and rational focus, stem from the impulse to use this new abundance of knowledge. In "Literate Orality and Popular Culture" Ong mentions that with the progress of technology we have returned to a "world of sound." In "Crisis in the Humanities," Ong examines how the liberal arts are part of the constant struggle and striving to understand our increasingly complex (oral and now digital) culture.

"Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology" includes only passing mention of grammar in its introductory chapter (due to the need to limit scope as well as Ong's coverage of the topic in other articles to which he refers). However, this work seems to pick up and compliment where McLuhan' published doctoral thesis leaves off (i.e. the times of Thomas Nashe) in illuminating important aspects of changes in "The Classic Trivium" since its origins in ancient Greece.

As Ong says in his preface, "The ancient rhetoricians were the first media buffs. Study of the rhetorical tradition enables us to interpret the past on its own terms and thus to discover the real roots out of which the present grows."

[John Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading a lot of rhetoric and composition-related stuff these days and Ong is frequently cited by many of the writers I've encountered. The book is worth it from of the perspective of reading what they read alone.

Ong's central thesis seems to be that the invention of the printing press began an intellectual switch from orality to literacy. That switch not only drove changes in how we interact with information but literally how we think.

Ong provides a lot of evidence from the time of the Tudors forward. Ong is an engaging writer and he definitely provides food for thought, but I think it's fair to say that there's much more to the story that this short work can tell.

[Astrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapters 1-7 for the old dissertation! Super good discussions of residual orality and commonplacing.