Marsha, Matt and all MOQers: Marsha added something to the discussion: "There was a 'something wrong - something wrong -something wrong' feeling like a buzzer in the back of his mind. It wasn't just his imagination. It was real. It was a primary perception of negative quality. First you sense the high or low quality, then you find reasons for it, not the other way around. Here he was, sensing it." (LILA, Chapter 20)
"In the Bible it is said that "In the Beginning, there was the Word," but in the deepest realm of Zen meditation there is no single word." - Nanrel Kobori-Roshe dmb says: Yes, thanks. That "buzzer" feeling or "primary perception" is exactly what I've been talking about. Reading the classical pragmatists has helped me see more clearly the role it plays in everyday experience. This hasn't taken anything away from my fondness for philosophical mysticism and the congeniality between that and "pure experience", which is where the Zen meditation fits nicely. But Dewey and others have helped me see how quality or the primary empirical reality figures into every thing, every day and all the time. As Pirsig says here, you sense the quality first and find reasons for it later. The hot stove example is meant to illustrate that order too. It was interesting to notice that in Dewey's theory of inquiry, which is more or less an abstract description of the modes of inquiry we already use with the most success, the original impetus, the primary felt quality, is more than just a pre-conceptual or pre-intellectual event which is later explained. It guides the whole process, which includes several ways of shaping and sharpening those conceptual and intellectual explanations. That 'something wrong' feeling will prompt us to look for clues to the source of the problem, we'll formulate some ideas based on those clues, we'll think up some ways to test those ideas. If and when one of those ideas passes the test and we've found the problem, we'll start thinking of ways to solve it. The final solution might require more tests and such but no matter how elaborate we get about our inquiry the answer will only make sense in terms of its ability to somehow resolve the originally felt quality. The end as well as the steps in between are all guided by that original impetus. There is a nice parallel between the original impetus and role played by "the call to adventure" in the hero's journey. (For those who haven't already heard me drone on about this for years, the hero's journey is what Joe Campbell calls the basic structure of myth and this structure can be seen in all forms of drama. Now it is deliberately used as a format for screenplays and such.) The standard opening of the story will show the would-be hero in his everyday enviroment. This is the baseline, the unproblematic situation that is about to be disturbed. The call to adventure is what does the disturbing. It announces a problem in the situation but almost always in a very obscure or mysterious way. Some event disturbs the equilibrium and demands attention, maybe its small or maybe there's been a murder or some great injustice. Then there is a phone call, a letter, a package left at the door. The would-be hero lured by questions, by clues and/or by outright pleas for help. They say its more fun and dramatic to portray the hero as reluctant, so that the call to adventure can only be accepted after some initial resistance. But one way or another the hero is convinced that its in his interest to embark on the adventure. The steps taken in inquiry are parallel in these later phases of the journey too. The hero has to first find out what the problem is, has to diagnose the problem, think of a way to sovle it and his actions put all this to the test. But my point is, as odd as it may seem, Dewey's model of inquiry has helped me appreciate the importance of that original event, the disturbance that gets the story moving. In some ways, the whole story is prefigured in the first scene. The whole movie is about resolving the opening event. In the end there is a consummation that only makes sense in terms of the original problem. And its kinda cool that both are all about growth and transformation through active engagement. Thanks, dmb _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live Hotmail and Microsoft Office Outlook – together at last. Get it now. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102225181033.aspx?pid=CL100626971033 Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
