Diana McPartlin (diana@asiantravel.com)
Wed, 29 Oct 1997 06:50:16 +0100
Platt Holden wrote:
>
> Greetings LS:
>
> Recent posts by Maggie, Diana and Doug have got me SOM thinking (always a
> problematic pursuit) about the next level above the intellectual. Pirsig
> hints at a such a level, calling it "a code of Art." What does he mean by
> "code" and "Art?"
>
> My guess is that Art means what Diana suggests: a synonym for Dynamic
> Quality. But as we know, DQ is not a level; it surrounds and pervades all
> levels. When Diana says "Art is any endeavor taken to the level that it
> becomes an Art," she is suggesting that indeed there is such a thing as a
> DQ-like level, not DQ itself, but a level above the intellectual that is
> infused with more DQ than levels below, that is, more open, more free, more
> encompassing and unifying.
It's an intriguing idea Platt but I can't quite see the need for a new level. The
current four static levels already allow for some phenomena within them to be more
dynamic or more Artistic than others.
You mention that the "Quality" level would be unifying. I agree that the best
works of Art often appeal on more than one static level. But as we have already
shown with chairs and coats, an object may be valued by different levels - there's
nothing unique about art in this sense.
> How is the MoQ presented? Not as a SOM paper, essay or philosophic treatise
> but as a work of art in a novel called LILA. As a work of art, the MoQ is
> primarily a static intellectual pattern, while as Art it invokes DQ through
> the aesthetic sense. I would be so bold as to assert that all of us on the
> LS, to one degree or another, for one fleeting instant or more, have
> experienced while reading LILA a Quality Event of high order. That is, a QE
> with a preponderance of DO.
Sure I have experienced DQ reading Lila but it is dynamic intellectual quality or,
to be more precise, Dynamic Quality which subsequently becomes static intellectual
quality. I would also argue that Lila incites dynamic quality which subsequently
becomes static emotional or biological quality as it enables one to relate to or
identify with Phaedrus and the other characters.
Diana
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