Squonk said: ...David not answering questions. ...This little discussion of ours sprang right out of something that David left hanging in the air, because i was pointing out to David that 'dynamic patterns' are called Dynamic functions by Pirsig, and they are found within levels not just between whole levels. All the while i've tried to answer your questions, that point about Dynamic functions has been forgotten about.
dmb says: Sorry, guess I figured the game was over. The fact that Pirsig uses "dynamic function" rather than "dynamic static patterns" seems to make my point pretty well. I understand that these dynamic functions are found within the levels. I don't think anyone said otherwise and I don't know what you mean by saying they're "not just between whole levels". If somebody made that claim, I missed it. Would have objected saying something like, "Huh, how would that work"? But my point was simply that a phrase like "open structure" would be better than something like "dynamic static pattern", which you agreed was clumsy and undermined an important distinction, sort of. Anyway, the phrase "dynamic function" works better for the same reasons. Like "open structure", it is not an inherently contradictory phrase. The picture painted in the quote - of static latching and dynamic growth all up and down the scale from primitive life to human art - also serves to illustrate my main objection. For an infant, learning to recognize an object like a rattle or its own hand is a sign of growth. The mystic, a grown up with countless static latches under her belt, also grows but not by grabbing rattles. The dynamic function continues but the latching and moving on happen on a whole different level. In other words, the mystic does not regress to a blank slate but moves forward, beyond the existing patterns. Shaking things up, pulling the rug out and temporary insanity and vision quest stuff doesn't erase all the previous progress so much as it re-arranges the patterns. One of your other planks bears on this, if memory serves you say, basically, "static patterns block dynamic quality". And I'm saying, "No, they preserve it". Your point about the Pirsig quote - it is only "speculation" that such deprivation would produce mentally retarded children - struck me as funny. I thought, of course it is only "speculation". We can only speculate because actually conducting the experiment would be a terrible crime! If there's something else hanging, feel free to remind me. But I think you should just knock your king over and start a new game. _________________________________________________________________ Don't get caught with egg on your face. Play chicktionary! http://club.live.com/chicktionary.aspx?icid=chick_wlhmtextlink1_feb 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/
