From: ian glendinning (psybertron@gmail.com)
Date: Sun Apr 24 2005 - 06:45:22 BST
I agree Matt.
The fact that the Benares period is so briefly discussed in ZMM Ifound intriguing. (The professor's answer being reduced to "Yes" forexample, probably says more abour Pirsig than the professor's intent).You'd think Pirsig would want to explain more about these particularevents since they seemed to have led him to "give up" the ghost ofreason.
Pirsig's correspondence to me on this point suggests, it's a chapterin his life he has already been asked to draft more words forpublication. Here's hoping.
You know one of my angles is that his personal story contains at leastas many lessons in life as any philosphical (or philosophological)arguments he propounds. There but for the grace of god ...
Ian
On 4/24/05, Matt Kundert <pirsigaffliction@hotmail.com> wrote:> DMB,> > DMB said:> It seems to me that Pirsig is not attacking the professor's professionalism> or anything like that [in the passage about Benares]. He leaves because,> from a certain perspective, the professor's answer is morally outrageous.> From a static point of view, if you will, the professor's answer is> downright freakin' evil. He left in disgust over the professor's apparent> lack of concern for all that death and destruction. And personally, I felt> the same way. A wave a disgust washed over me when I read that passage.> > Matt:> Yeah, but if you read the section of the essay that Anthony pulled that> snipet from, I'm not saying that Pirsig's attacking the professor's> professionalism at that point. The section that Anthony pulled the quote> from was attempting to establish a mood in Pirsig's writing, which I was> doing by putting together a few of the more obvious places where Pirsig> talks about his teachers and education. That's
it. The paragraph that the> apparently contested quote comes from is this:> > "Pirsig doesn't blame the university for failing him, but he cannot help but> feel as though it was an injustice. There is a better way if only they'd see> it. Pirsig continually reflects the antiestablishmentarian mood of the> sixties and seventies by fighting every authority figure he comes across.> Pirsig says that "he felt that institutions such as schools, churches,> governments and political organizations of every sort all tended to direct> thought for ends other than truth…."45 The mood of Pirsig's stories are> highly antagonistic, in particular his education stories. His science> professors are stuck in an unreflective abyss, so, not knowing what else to> do (what teenager would?), he despairs and flunks out. Finding perhaps a> better fit for his speculative and reflective interests in philosophy,> Pirsig still says that "he's such an abominable scholar it must be through> the kindness of his instructors that he pas!
ses at a
ll,"46 (which is probably> the nicest thing he says about any of his teachers) suggesting a constant> struggle between Pirsig and his teachers. Pirsig goes to Benares Hindu> University and just gets up and leaves because he was tired of the> philosophy professor "blithely expounding on the illusory nature of the> world."47 Pirsig never even feels comfortable himself in his own role as> part of the establishment, always favoring the outcasts in the back of the> class. His Church of Reason lecture, in fact, is in no small part a> reflection of his pessimism for the educative act.48 And then comes Chicago,> probably the most famous section of ZMM. His war with the Professor of> Philosophy and the Chairman (Richard McKeon) have become legendary. A> reading of the Chicago episode, and his peculiar relationship with McKeon,> is surely outside the bounds of this paper. But I think it might be> sufficient to note that Pirsig, reflecting on the incident almost forty> years later, says that he "was an outsider who see
med more interested in> attacking what was being taught than learning from it. My hyperactive mind> seized upon this [the analogy between himself and a wolf] as my definitive> relationship to the school…."49 I think this simple rehearsal of Pirsig's> educational history supplies us with the antiauthoritarian context with> which to fit Pirsig's comments about philosophology."> > I was just trying to establish a mood, and I think the incident at Benares> falls within a noticable pattern or leit motif.> > Matt> > _________________________________________________________________> Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search!> http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/> > > MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org> Mail Archives:> Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/> Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html> MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net> > To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:> http://www.moq.org/md!
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