All of this talk about whether or not Phaedrus is fictional.
It reminds me of the problem that historians have in distinguishing between
what Socrates said and what Plato has Socrates say, let alone what all the
other characters in Plato's Dialogues really said. The point is, it's in a
book, and we can't really know unless we have some clues.
The clues in ZMM all point to Pirsig being the same as the narrator/Phaedrus,
but it must be remembered that the book is based on actual occurences "although
much has been changed for rhetorical purposes..." Pirsig says we should take
it as the essence of fact, but remember--things have been changed. Even more
to the point, Lila has no Author's Note in the beginning.
Platt has furnished some clues from outside the books, but I think most of them
are suspect. What do Restak, Strawson, and Cryer really know about the writing
of Pirsig's books? Nothing more than we do. They read the same books we did.
If you want better evidence try the Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance which offers cut out parts of the original ZMM manuscript and
letters between Pirsig and a whole host of people. One is this one, which I
shall submit as Exhibt D:
Before [Pirsig] sent it off to the many publishing houses, Pirsig shared the
manuscript with various actual persons who appear in the narrative. After he
had sent it to Gennie and Rober DeWeese but before he had gotten their
feedback, he had received the reactions of his son Chris and his Twin Cities
friends John and Sylvia, and his follow-up letter of December 29, 1972, to the
DeWeeses reads in part:
"Sylvia was kind of thrown by the way I switched everything around, and Chris
was really shook, so I guess you probably have some of the same feelings. I
explained to them that the story isn't really about them, that they are like a
Greek chorus there to "Oh" and "Ah" and give a semblance of reality to a tale
that seems always to ride at the very edge of incredibility and needs all the
help it can get. In the first draft she and John were much more
three-dimensional, but it became apparent that the center of the book must be
the Chautauqua, and she and John cannot be allowed to upstage it or the person
telling it. For reasons shown at the end of the story, the narrator's
perception of people around him is very weak and distorted, and so this
two-dimensional portrayal of Sylvia and John and yourselves becomes justified.
"Her observation and yours that "it isn't really me" is correct and made me
kind of unhappy when I first heard it because it was so true, and at one time
out of pique and whimsy I was going to have the ghost Phaedrus appear to the
narrator and say "It's a nice description but it isn't really me," and the
narrator would answer back, "Yeah, well this isn't really me either." I don't
know who all these paper people really are, just parts of a dream that appeared
over the years and seemed to have some quality." (italics Pirsig's)
Coupled with a description of the creative process that went into the making of
ZMM (all in the 25th anniversery re-printing of ZMM (1999), a copy that I saw
and read in a bookstore, but unfourtunately did not buy) it's pretty clear how
Pirsig feels about the whole matter.
As my closing statement (to the jury), I would offer this alternative way of
looking at the two books: The author (Pirsig, who wrote the note in the
beginning of ZMM) froze his life and used it as the model upon which he wrote
about the narrator and Phaedrus. In Lila, he repeated the process. In this
case it becomes confusing when his main character (now just Phaedrus) is said
to have written ZMM. It's never outright stated, but it's implied by the
text.
But remember: Phaedrus is based on Pirsig, he's not actually Pirsig. And
because he's based on Pirsig, Phaedrus has written a book on the subject of
Quality and had all the other experiences of ZMM.
As a final note, when I or anyone else here refers to Pirsig's philosophy, it's
just easier to say "Pirsig says" rather than "Pirsig through the mouthpiece of
Phaedrus or narrator". It is safe to assume (I hope) that Pirsig agrees with
the philosophy expounded by his characters.
Finally sent in the final essay,
Matt
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