Hi Mary, all, Below is Phaedrus' first attempt to answer your questions in Lila. It is an unsatisfying answer. He spent pretty much the rest of the book trying to give better ones. Does Lila have Quality?
Best, Steve "Well there are some of us left," he said, returning to the author, "who are still holding out against your hedonistic 'Quality' philosophy or whatever it is." "I was just asking a question," the author said. "But it's a question that expresses a certain point of view," Richard Rigel answered, "and it's a point of view that some people, including myself, find loathsome." "I'm still not sure why." God he was insufferable. "All right, I'll tell you why. Will you listen?" "Of course." "No, I mean really listen?" The author was silent. "You made a statement in your book that everyone knows and agrees to what 'Quality' is. Obviously everyone does not! You refused to define 'Quality,' thus preventing any argument on the subject. You tell us that 'dialecticians' who debate these matters are scoundrels. I guess that would include lawyers too. That's pretty good. You carefully tie your critics' hands and feet so that they cannot give you any opposition, tar their reputations for good measure, and then you say, 'Okay, come on out and fight.' Very brave. Very brave." "May I come out and fight?" the author said. "My exact statement was that people do disagree as to what Quality is, but their disagreement is only on the objects in which they think Quality inheres." "What's the difference?" "Quality, on which there is complete agreement, is a universal source of things. The objects about which people disagree are merely transitory." My oh my, what smart talk, Richard Rigel thought. "What 'universal source of things'? Some of us can do without that universal source of things, that no one else seems to be able to talk about but you. Some of us would rather stick with our good old-fashioned transitory objects. By the way, how do you keep in touch with that marvelous 'universal source of things?' Do you have some sort of special radio set? Hmmm? How do you keep in touch?" The author did not answer. "I'm waiting to hear." Richard Rigel said. "How do you keep in touch with Quality?" The author still didn't answer. Relief poured through Richard Rigel. He suddenly felt better than he had all morning. He finally communicated something to him. "There are answers," the author finally said, "but I don't think I can give them all to you this morning." He wasn't going to get off that easy. "Let me ask an easier question then," Richard Rigel said. "You are in contact with this 'universal source of things,' aren't you?" "Yes," said the author. "You are too, if only you'd understand it." "Well I'm trying," said Richard Rigel, "but you're just going to have to help me a little. This 'universal source of things' moreover tells you what's good and what's not good, doesn't it? Isn't that right?" "Yes," said the author. "Well, we've been talking in a rather general way so far, now let me ask a rather specific question: Did the universal source of things, that is responsible for the creation of Heaven and Earth, broadcast on your radio receiver as you stumbled across my boat at two a.m. this morning that the woman you were stumbling with was an Angel of Quality?" "What?" the author asked. "I'll repeat," he said. "Did God tell you that Miss Lila M. Blewitt of Rochester, New York, with whom you stumbled across my deck at two this morning, has Quality?" "What God?" "Forget God. Do you personally think Miss Lila M. Blewitt is a Woman of Quality?" "Yes." Richard Rigel stopped. He hadn't expected this answer. Could the Great Author really be so stupid? . . . Maybe he had some trick up his sleeve. . . . Richard Rigel waited but nothing came. "Well," he said after a long pause, "the Great Source of All Things is really coming up with some surprises these days." He leaned forward and addressed the Great Author with deep gravity. "Please will you, in future days, consider the possibility that the 'Great Source of All Things,' that speaks only to you and not to me, is, like so many of your ideas, just a figment of your own fertile imagination, a figment that allows you to justify any act of your own immorality as somehow God-given. I consider that undefined 'Quality' to be a very dangerous commodity. It's the stuff fools and fanatics are made of." He waited for the author to drop his gaze or wince or blanch or get angry or walk out or give some sign of defeat, but he seemed to just settle back into his usual detachment. "He's really out of it," Richard Rigel thought. But no matter. The spine of his whole case for "Quality" was broken. 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/
