Fictionalization: Ong's "Game of Literacy"

It was upon reaching Section II of Ong’s article that I felt the need to question his theory that, “the writer’s audience is always a fiction.”  It isn’t that Ong completely misses the target; it is that he continuously claims to have hit the center.  If one were to remove the word “always” from Ong’s claim, he would have a solid one indeed. 

                The process of fictionalization, as described by Ong in section II, is a two sided occurrence: the first part of the process is in the hands of the author who is constructing his work, while the second finds itself in the seemingly unexpecting hands of the audience.  When I first read this claim, I wasn’t at all bothered, as I was able to remember several dozen times when I had, myself, become so engrossed in a work of fiction that I felt as if I was in the shoes of the protagonist.  It was when I realized that Ong expects his claim to apply to all forms of literature and every type of audience that I was taken aback.  I am well aware of the power that words hold, especially when fashioned by skilled hands, but to say that all forms of literature “demand” (Ong, 12) the reader to ”conform” (Ong, 12)  and “play the game” (Ong, 12)  of pretending to be something they are not is greatly misguided.

                Ong begins to expand his notion of (the role of) fictionalization at the end of the first column of page 12 when he brings history into play.  Ong claims that “A history of literature could be written in terms of the ways in which audiences have successively been fictionalized…each new role that readers assume is related to previous roles.”(Ong, 12)  This claim brings into question more than just the audience's capacity to read without being fully immersed in the realm of the author.  I believe that readers hold not only the capacity to read some forms of writing without fictionalizing themselves, but that a claim that they are not able to do so brings to question that agency as human beings.  The actions and reactions of audiences are shaped by more than just their relation to past generations and the way said generation interacted with a particular text. 

                I can’t help but question, however, whether it is simply my definition of fictionalization that deters me from seeing Ong’s point.  I can see how successful works of literature, particularly fiction, can work to draw the audience into their unique world, but it seems to me that the “game of literacy” is one that a reader must choose to and must be inspired to take part in.