From: Glenn Bradford (gmbbradford@netscape.net)
Date: Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:39:36 GMT
MDers,
PIRSIG: (LC)
> "The fact that everyone seemed to think that Phædrus was me came
> as an unpleasant surprise after the book was published. I had
> assumed that everyone would of course know that an author and a
> character in his book cannot possibly be the same person."
He is correct that an author and a character can not be the same
person but only in some very technical sense such as that
characters in books are mental constructs and not physical people.
Barring this sense from consideration I find what he says preposterous.
Recall that Phædrus meets Robert Redford in Lila to discuss making
ZMM into a movie. Should we believe that a fictional character called
Phædrus, who is not really Pirsig, authored ZMM? Rigel has a dialogue
with the "Great Author" about his first book, a book about "quality".
Should we not think that the "Great Author" is Pirsig, and the book ZMM?
How surprised *should* he be that people thought otherwise?
PLATT:
"So I guess a question will always be, "Will the real Robert Pirsig please
stand up?" But when he writes things like, "What the Metaphysics of
Quality says . . ." I believe I'm safe in presuming that the statements
and conclusions which follow are Pirsig's own."
You would think so, but you should wonder how much conviction he can have
about the MOQ if its ideas are coming from Phædrus, and Phædrus is not him.
And on one odd occasion in LC Pirsig begins a clarification of a point by
saying, "If I understand the MOQ properly,...". I mean, if he doesn't know,
what chance have we? This, coupled with what he says above, and his
softened position on the effectiveness of the MOQ to resolve anything but
the simplest moral issue, makes me wonder if he's distancing himself from
his ideas.
Glenn
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