Hi gang
If everything's gone according to plan you should now all be subscribed
to the MoQ Discussion Group. Our new email address is
We passed the Lila Squad's first birthday a few weeks ago without note.
However I did write to Pirsig at the time and he sent this message for
the group:
"Readers of the English paperback of Lila may remember my
statement before it was published that while ZMM was like a first child
and would probably always be the best loved, this second child, Lila,
was the bright one. It might seem controversial or disappointing to
some, but if these two books are read 100 years from now, Lila will be
regarded as the more important. The work of those on the Internet today
makes that prediction seem stronger now than ever.
"Parents have to let go of their children and children have to
make it in the world on their own. But when a child enters the world
for the first time and, for reasons that have nothing to do with his or
her own merits, is shunned by snobs or attacked by bullies, it is very
hard for a parent to watch. But then when a group of people come along
and, for no reason other than their own generosity, befriend the child
and pick it up out of the dust and help it to grow up and get to know
others and become a full-fledged accepted and strong member of society
-- you can understand what that parent's attitude toward that group is
going to be.
"I've kept out of online discussions, because, as I say,
children have to make it on their own. But there's another reason that
relates to the distinction between philosophers and philosophologists.
People sometimes ask who my favorite philosopher is and I answer, just
to jog them out of the usual philosophological rut into the idea that
real philosophy is not a set of fixed stale systems of ideas but rather
a kind of creative activity: 'Abraham Lincoln.' Lincoln was a creative
philosopher. My favorite quotation from him was that he liked to take
an idea and bound it on the North and bound it on the East and on the
South and on the West, just to see how far it goes. Lincoln was a
surveyor in his early years and I think he used the word 'bound' in the
old surveyor's sense. I see a lanky man with a compass and transit and
surveyor's rods and chain pushing his way through the underbrush of the
wilderness, very concerned about accuracy in determining where this
particular parcel of land stops and the next begins. He knows that if he
doesn't get his measurements right, endless disputes and problems will
follow later on. If you study Lincoln's speeches closely you'll see
that, although he sounds casual enough on the surface, there's a careful
surveyor's precision underlying every sentence he writes.
"I sometimes see you as a group of surveyors at the edge
of a kind of intellectual wilderness. You're all engaged in a creative
activity rather than just sitting back parroting and dissecting old
masters. This is real philosophy. I can't tell you where to go because
I don't really know for sure myself. And if I did, I probably shouldn't
tell you anyway because that might spoil all the Dynamic adventure and
excitement this wilderness offers."
As I can't think of anything to add to that I'd better end the first
post on the MoQ Discussion Group here.
Have fun
Diana
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