From: gav (gav_gc@yahoo.com.au)
Date: Mon Oct 10 2005 - 14:28:48 BST
nice one arlo.
perhaps quality is its own reward.
--- "Arlo J. Bensinger" <ajb102@psu.edu> wrote:
> There are those among us who have long contended
> that enriching the self, either
> with symbolic (power) or financial capital, is the
> groundstuff of the human
> condition, the unquestionable market force that
> drives Quality.
>
> Platt provided again, in another post, the Pirsig
> quotion of man's cooperative
> nature being a "devastating fiction". This got me
> thinking...
>
> What was it that drove the publication of ZMM, and
> got the whole MOQ process
> underway?
>
> In the afterwards to ZMM, Pirsig had stated "Writing
> it seemed to have higher
> quality than not writing it, that was all." But what
> was the nature of that
> Quality that writing it met?
>
> If it self-enrichment in one's understanding of the
> world, a fine and valuable
> self-full goal, then Pirsig could have stopped with
> his own personal
> understanding, and not proceeded with the effort to
> print and publish. In
> short, his enrichment was met, why continue with
> authorship and publication?
>
> Was it to seek profit? If the "conservatives" are
> correct, that this is the High
> Noble Goal That Drives All Man's Actions, then
> perhaps this was it? But Pirsig
> also states in the afterwards, "Back then, after 121
> others had turned this
> book down, one lone editor offered a standard $3,000
> advance. He said the book
> forced him to decide what he was in publishing for,
> and added that although
> this was almost certainly the last payment, I
> shouldn’t be discouraged. Money
> wasn’t the point with a book like this. That was
> true."
>
> "That was true." This seems to indicate that had
> Pirsig never received another
> dime in royalties, he would still see the
> publication and authorship as High
> Quality.
>
> So, if Pirsig's Quality in writing and publishing
> was not financial capital, was
> it celebrity? Fame? And the symbolic capital (power)
> that comes with it? Pirsig
> talked a lot about celebrity in Lila, and it comes
> across strongly that even
> then he was shying from celebrity, and now he lives
> in somewhat seclusion when
> his celebrity would afford such riches. No, I don't
> think he wrote it to attain
> celebrity for himself.
>
> Was it for posterity-fame? Was it to go down in the
> history books as "this" or
> "that"? If this were the case, I'd think he'd be
> more involved in the ongoing
> development of the theory.
>
> But if he went though all that trouble of writing,
> and then all the effort of
> attemtping to publish, and he was not motivated by
> money or celebrity, and he
> had already achieved the self-full goal of personal
> enrichment that comes with
> knowledge.... what then?
>
> So what Quality did writing and publishing fulfill?
> What was "the point of a
> book like this"?
>
> I offer-- to contribute to the betterment of others.
> That's the only reason that
> seems to make sense to me. Although we've rewarded
> him (financially) for his
> authorship and ideas, this financial reward seemed
> to play *no part* in guiding
> Pirsig's decision to author/publish. Indeed, he
> seemed to indicate he would
> have done so even he was told upfront he would
> receive no financial rewards.
> Although we've made him into a reluctant celebrity,
> he shuns this role, and
> from what I know has never "cashed in" the symbolic
> capital that this celebrity
> brought. Likely, if he was assured upfront that he
> would have lived out his
> life in obscurity, he would still have chosen to
> author/publish.
>
> The Quality that Pirsig's writing met was that he
> brought new understanding and
> insight into the social/intellectuals domains, so as
> to improve, or contribute
> to, intellectual evolution. This is, to me, the
> foundation for an argument that
> places social and intellectual evolution on social
> cooperation and the
> self-less (in the financial/symbolic capital sense)
> activity guided by a
> Quality higher than personal financial wealth,
> namely the enrichment of the
> social/intellectual levels for all.
>
> In short, if people were really "just in it for
> themselves", why do we have ZMM?
> What Quality did writing it serve? Pirsig has
> proved, through his actions, that
> there are Greater Goods than personal wealth and
> fame, and that it is to
> contribute to the
> betterment/advacement/enrichment/evolution of
> culture is what
> guides High Quality lives.
>
> Arlo
>
>
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