From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Tue Sep 30 2003 - 03:20:41 BST
Sam and all MOQers:
dmb said:
I suppose its no accident that this is almost exactly why Pirsig wrote Lila;
> because too many ZAMM readers were left with the impression that Quality
is
> just whatever we like. ...He wrote an entire book to explore that
> issue, to clarify for the Rigels of the world,...
Sam replied:
Well - you're effectively saying that ZMM failed in its purpose. That's why
I think it's an amazing comment.
dmb says:
Exactly. That's what I was trying to say: Pirsig is a big fat loser.
Just kidding.
But seriously, there probably isn't an author in the world who hasn't been
misunderstood to some extent. The passages I posted from Lila, where Richard
Rigel is criticizing ZAMM, looks very much like Pirsig has taken such
misunderstandings seriously. Rigel is fictional of course, but its pretty
clear to me that he represents a whole bunch of real people, that he
represents a fairly widespread misconception about ZAMM. Further, I don't
think it would be fair to say the failure rests entorely with the Rigels of
the world. I think some clarification was needed and that the author was
effectively admiting that generally by writing Lila and specifically by
writing those posted passages.
Mostlyu, I think its not so different from those "follow your bliss" bumber
stickers. I don't blame Campbell for it so much as I blame the drivers, who
are likely to know just a little about Campbell. (He uttered the phrase
during a television interview and, as far as I know, it does not appear in
his books.)
And of course my original point was only that reducing interesting ideas
down to slogans isn't very helpful, expect as a form of shorthand for those
who have already heard the idea explained at length.
Thanks,
dmb
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