hi, pat:
im new too. so not too worry. and you are right in that the narrator of zmm is not technically Phaedrus. that side of his personality was blotted out temporarily by the electric shocks given "therapeutically", and is reemerging during his motorcycle journey with his son. but i was referring to the signs his son was exhibiting and which the narrator recognizes as being part of his illness.
in Lila, however, Phaedrus is the narrator and he reexamines the question of mental illness which is what leads him to Dynamic Quality. isnt it odd that Lila, too, like Chris, suffers from it?
i see both Lila and Chris as a medium through which Pirsig expounds his philosophy and they have many common denominators among them: insanity.
Lithien
Who looks outside, dreams;
Who looks inside, awakes.
~*~Carl Jung~*~
http://members.tripod.com/~lithien/8pixiedust.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Pat Tully <ptully@netrax.net>
To: moq_discuss@moq.org <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Date: Saturday, October 10, 1998 3:13 PM
Subject: Re: MD Levels of Quality
>Hi Lithien and everybody,
>
>I'm relatively new to the listserv and this is my first posting, so be
>kind!
>
>> >Donald H. Crawford said:
>> >
>> > ... The Romantic/Classic dichotomy (in ZMM) seemed
>> >a stretch to me, although I was fascinated by the motorcycle travelogue
>> >and the identity crisis of Phaedrus. I was bothered by what I perceived
>> >as low quality responses by Phaedrus to his son and his traveling
>> >partners.
>>
>>Lithien responded:
>>
>> yes, don, i felt the same way about his seeming inability to interact
>> intimately with his son. however, i thought the son was also suffering from
>> manic-depression and saw it as a two way street. ...
>--------------
>
>My impression is that the narrator in most of ZMM was not Phaedrus, but
>the persona Phaedrus (unconsciously) constructed to get out of the
>asylum. The persona is of a nice guy, very even keeled and placid--and
>static. He says he has not had an original thought in years; the
>thoughts he expresses are all from Phaedrus. The price of maintaining
>this persona is that the narrator has to condemn and deny the dynamic
>part of himself--Phaedrus. Phaedrus is extreme--very talented and
>driven intellectually, but not at all gifted or motivated emotionally or
>socially.
>
>Of course the narrator was not able to interact intimately with his
>son--he is alienated from himself and so cannot be intimate with anyone
>else. He did not want to become Phaedrus again--it was too dangerous.
>Also, Chris was pressing the issue. He sensed that his father was not
>himself and he wanted his real father back. At one point in ZMM Chris
>shouts at his father that he talks and talks, but he doesn't DO anything
>anymore. It was less threatening for the narrator to think that his son
>was mentally ill than that the problem was within himself. At the end
>of ZMM the narrator finally accepts Phaedrus as a part of himself and so
>is able to accept his son.
>
>I think the pre-asylum Phaedrus was trying to live purely by Dynamic
>Quality, without conventions, pre-conceptions, authority, etc. But
>Static Quality in the form of his wife and medical profession brought
>him back down to earth with a crash. Being an extremist, Phaedrus then
>'decided' to live a persona entirely within the dictates of Static
>Quality. That didn't work either, because the dynamic aspect of
>Phaedrus would not be denied.
>
>In Lila Phaedrus is himself again, doing what he feels passionate about
>(MoQ) but mindful of the biological, social and intellectual
>conventions. It did not bother me that Phaedrus in Lila was not very
>socially adept; his passion lies in intellectual, not social pursuits.
>Living according to DQ (aka the Tao) does not make you good at
>everything, but it does drive you in the direction that is most
>fulfilling for you. I guess that puts me in the 'DQ as purpose' camp,
>although I don't know if there is a goal, only a direction.
>
>Pat
>
>
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