dmb says: Wow. I forgot all about this until today. (Although the phrase "wandering through the mythos" has been rattling around in my head for a long time.) Apparently, Pirsig had forgotten too. I remember, in Liverpool when his Orphic connection blew my mind, I said something like, "I had no idea" and Pirsig replied, "You couldn't have known. I've never mentioned it before". (I think that part is in the movie.) And my own response to the letter at the time, back in 1999, was excitement but I was also apparently oblivious to the references to Orpheus or Cocteau. The film festival, where my own interest in Orpheus really began, occurred in August of 2000. I went on a reading frenzy after that. Maybe I wouldn't have latched onto Orpheus the way I did if the memory of Pirsig's letter weren't filed away somewhere, but even now I can't recall any conscious connections. And even now, the Orphic connection still blows my mind as a very spooky coincidence.
I'd like to see that Master's thesis on Nietzsche and Pirsig too. Thanks. ---------------------------------------- > Mr. Pirsig writes, > ?????"Making people laugh sympathetically about other people's disabilities > is an enormous accomplishment. > ?????The fact that you are doing so well at it indicates that the phenomena > that you experienced back in your 'insane' days may have been a kind of an > enlightenment as well as an insanity. The two tend to overlap. > ?????...Prior to enlightenment there is often a huge opening of the mind to > the 'mythos' which in this case means more than just legends. It means the > main stream, the whole body of every idea that ever existed or can exist > which each culture selects from, calling its own selection 'reality.' At > this time there is an abandonment of normal channels of cultural selectivity > over thought. The selection goes sort of crazy and you can think of any damn > thing and think it is real and in a sense it is. When you start wandering in > this mythos all rules are off and so you can pick up on strange things. I > think your mind wanderings about me and the ideas in ZMM and Lila probably > had less to do with me personally than with this phenomenon. > ?????...Just before entering the University of Chicago... I experienced a > similar pickup on the film 'Orpheus' by Jean Cocteau. I lived inside that > film and it had the same sort of effect on me that my book seems to have had > on you. > ?????...I'm certainly proud that ZMM has had a similar function for you and > that you are a part of the crowd of people working to diminish the misery of > the world rather than add to it or just ignore it. As I'm sure you know, > it's not as easy as it may look." > _________________________________________________________________ Instantly invite friends from Facebook and other social networks to join you on Windows Live™ Messenger. https://www.invite2messenger.net/im/?source=TXT_EML_WLH_InviteFriends 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/
