Re: MD Where does quality reside?

From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Tue Nov 02 2004 - 03:22:13 GMT

  • Next message: David Morey: "Re: MD On Faith"

    > > msh says:
    > > Metaphor is poetry. If your understanding of poetry is that it is
    > > "writing just for emotional effect", and that it must be broken up
    > > into short lines that rhyme, then your understanding of poetry is
    > > next to non-existent.

    platt:
    > My understanding of poetry exists in the Merriam-Webster Online
    > Dictionary:
    >
    > 2 : writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of
    > experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific
    > emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm
    >
    > And who said anything about short lines that rhyme? Why do you make
    > up such stuff?
     
    > msh says:
    > Make up what stuff? My statement was a simple conditional, which may or
    > may not apply to you.

    So why did you say "your understanding" in the statement?

    > I was filling in the gaps, trying to understand why
    > you'd think that Pirsig's use of metaphor and other poetic devices doesn't
    > constitute the writing of poetry.

    So you were applying the statement to me after all.

    > The only thing I could see, off the top
    > of my head, was that the lines weren't short and didn't rhyme. If you are
    > now changing your mind and recognizing the highly poetic nature of ZMM and
    > LILA, then good for you.

    So now ZMM and LILA are poems? Surely you jest.

    > BTW, going to a dictionary for an understanding
    > of poetry is like examining a pallet to experience a painting. You, of all
    > people, should know better.
     
    I know better than to rely on you for the meaning of words.
     
    > platt:
    > But he does say Quality is a "creative force" which implies that it
    > prefers and chooses.
    >
    > msh says:
    > Sez who? Well, let's use the analogy of the Sun. The sun is a
    > creative force. How does it perceive and choose? Similarly, what
    > does it mean to say Quality chooses? Chooses what? Compared to
    > what?
     
    Sez Pirsig. Dynamic Quality chooses freedom over one-sided fixed values
    and in so doing has created the levels of value from inorganic to
    intellectual. Or haven't you read Lila?

    Platt

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