From: Matt the Enraged Endorphin (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Tue Dec 10 2002 - 00:32:45 GMT
Mari,
You said:
Did Pirsig say something to the effect that the reason he kept
"slips" was so he could empty his head so new information could be more
easily accessed? Didn't he also say something to the effect of 99%(?) of
everything we know we have been told or read. In other words there isn't
much that is original?
Matt:
He absolutely did say things to those effect (in the beginning of Lila he
talks about the slips) and its in large part why I find such a strong
tension between some of the things he says. Contrast when he says that 99%
of everything is unoriginal with his attitude in ZMM when he says (about
Phaedrus), "He wanted this thesis not to owe anyone anything." (ch 28)
Now, Pirsig describes the old him as being infected with extreme forms of
megalomania. This doesn't necessarily carry forward, but I don't think it
disappears, either.
The scholar remark was actually a reference to when Pirsig describes
Phaedrus as an "abominable scholar" (ch 11). Like the megalomania, I think
he's matured beyond that in large part.
As a whole, I'm hesitant to stray too far into battles about Pirsig's
psychological makeup and his originality. I do offer them as
counter-weights to the often-enough made claim that Pirsig's the most
original thinker in this past century. The brief reference to his
psychology was simply made to underscore my main point: that a distinction
between philosophology and philosophy is untenable and not useful.
Matt
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