From: Matt the Enraged Endorphin (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Sat Nov 16 2002 - 19:39:28 GMT
John,
>The idea that Pirsig will be
>recognised in 50 years is a gross distortion of the
>nature of longevity and a worrying aspect of a fan
>club that strives to be something other.
Gross distortion? I think you're being a little naive if you think
Pirsig's just going to disappear. For instance, why hasn't Pirsig
disappeared in the last, say, 28 years? Why pick now as your starting
point for a disappearing act rather then when ZMM came out? The easy
answer is that ZMM has been so wildly popular for so long that, to say the
former, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on. The publishers had a major
re-releasing after 10 years, 20 years, and again only 5 years after the
20th anniversery and its still selling well today. So, who exactly are we
talking about?
Along Camusian lines, if you're saying that, given enough time, everybody
will be forgotten, then of course, you're right. If you think that by 2052
the general public will have forgotten about Pirsig, you may be right. But
if you are talking about academia, then I don't think so. After all, what
do you think cultural historians do all day? Read books from 50 years ago
that nobody else read? No, they read the popular books of the time, the
books that affected people. The lasting popularity of this book I think is
a pretty good indicator that cultural historians will be taking a hard look
at why Pirsig was so popular and what lasting effect he had. I know I've
talked to enough people who were moved by the book, more then a few moved
straight into philosophy as a discipline, to think that he's had an effect.
I said as much to Richard Rorty, after taking a page out of 3WD's book and
just e-mailing him. Rorty's moving into comparative literature and
intellectual history and he claims to have never understood why Pirsig's
book was so popular, so who better to start with when scoping the general
trends and movements of culture? If you don't understand Pirsig's
popularity, then the book must be tapping into something that you're
neglecting.
I have few doubts that Pirsig will eventually be taught to college students
in American Cultural and Intellectual History survey courses. He's already
a favorite for many people who teach Intro philosophy courses. ZMM has
been refered to as "the most widely read philosophy book, ever." And being
as the general trend is for more and more people to attend college, I think
there's a decent chance of Pirsig's book continuing to impact the general
public. In fact, my bet is that until people assimilate the general
outlines of his message, it will continue to be popular with people who
aren't happy with the way things are. After the assimilation, it may fall
off in popularity, people not receiving the same impact anymore, but not so
with the cultural historians. They'll still be there to mark the events.
And as for this "fan club," if everything I say is accurate, then this
site, if it lasts long enough (literally, in the case of it not
disappearing from the net), will be an artifact of Pirsig's popularity and,
therefore, an object of study for cultural historians. After all, Pirsig's
left very little in writing and he's referenced this site in the latest
re-issue of ZMM, so this might be a first stop for historians. So, mark
what you say well. You may end up one day in a American history course.
Matt
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