From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sun Nov 21 2004 - 23:47:41 GMT
Sam Norton said: ...As I understand the phrase 'Quality has Lila', it means
that in the
mystical flux of Quality, which expresses itself in various Dynamic and
Static patterns of value,
some patterns have coalesced around a person which we call 'Lila'. But it is
the patterns that are
primary, not the person. To put it technically, the person is an
epiphenomenon without any value in
and of itself (contrasted with the patterns of value which 'compose' the
person).
dmb says:
This almost gives me a picture of what's in your imagination and I think it
is extremely helpful. I think its the wrong picture and does not reflect
Pirsig's view, but it helps in pin-pointing the problem.
Please try this simple thought experiment. First, take the image of that
epiphenomenonal whirlwindy Jane Doe and throw it out the window. Get rid of
it entirely. For a fresh start, fill that blank slate with an image of
yourself instead of some hypothetical person. (A mirror and some soft
lighting may help with this part.) From this point we can then add Pirsig's
descriptions of people. The distinctions made between the levels don't
divide the person literally of course, they merely describe the various
aspects of your person. So we can't rightly say that the worst thing about
mass murder is the loss of intellectual patterns because the patterns
themselves are not destroyed by killing people. Those ideas will exist in
other minds, in other books, etc., except in the unlikely case that the one
murdered has just had a profound intellectual breakthrough but hasn't had
time to write it down or say it out loud. Living beings are the only source
of NEW ideas. The the point of the quote, I think.
Dan makes a good point. Lila is our prime example. There are lots of
characters in Pirsig's work and its all about people, but nobody gets more
ink than Lila. I know Quality has Lila and not the other way around, but
having said that, let me dispense with that awkward construction and review
her case. Pirsig says she does and does NOT have quality at the same time.
She has biological quality, even if that's starting to fade, but she has no
intellectual quality and is socially pretty far down the scale. Dynamic
Quality is one thing she has plenty of, maybe too much. She needs some
static patterns to encase her freedom, he says. She needs to get a life, a
job and cash a paycheck. She needs the rituals of daily life rather than
this unanchored drifting. She is not retarded, but her lack of social and
intellectual quality does not prevent Pirsig from saying she has value, has
quality. And he ends the book expressing hope and concern about what she
will become in the future. She does not get sent to the gas chambers for her
lack of social and intellectual quality, she gets compassion and assistance.
The captain effectively invests his reputation in her rehabilitation. His
refusal to take a judgemental Victorian attitude toward this "homewrecker"
may have saved her life. How does Pirsig put it? Rigel had no respect for
her and lots for him, but after hearing the captian defend Lila, he had some
respect for her and less for him. He gave himself away for her. And it
wasn't because she was about to publish an important scientific paper, you
know? It was just because she is a person.
To take another approach, the idea of a person as microcosm of the universe
fits very well into the MOQ. If everything in the world can be categorized
in terms of the four levels and if people are a forest of patterns from all
four levels, then people and the world are essentially the same. The center
is everywhere and the circumference nowhere, the net of jewels and all that,
see? Thou art That.
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