Ong and Comics

In one of the folders containing Ong's "Comics and the Super State" (Arizona Quarterly 1.3 (1945): 34-48) is a survey intended to learn what comics people read. Correspondence in the files indicates that the essay, which sees quasi-fascist, Nazi ideologies in superhero comics, grew out of teaching a "practical criticism" course at Regis College. While the title of the course should have tipped me off, I didn't make the connection to I.A. Richard's Practical Criticism until I saw the survey. As I understand it, Richard's approach to studying people's responses to literature never really took off and was overshadowed by F.R. Leavis' work. But here is evidence that Ong was taking a Richardsonian approach to studying literature. Ong was introduced to the work of both Richards and Leavis through Marshall McLuhan.