On Jan 10, 2010, at 5:17 AM, John Carl wrote: > You had to suffer shipwreck though your own efforts before you were ready to > seize the lifebelt he threw you.... The Master knows you and each of his > pupils much better than we know ourselves. He reads in the souls of his > pupils more than they care to admit. > > Eugen Herrigel, Zen and the Art of Archery
John, Is there a separation between master and student? Marsha > > > So I was thinking the other day, about writing. My brother in law wrote a > book about when he and Lu were kids growing up in Africa and he used a > literary device, I think it's called the "second person objective" or > something like that. It went something like this: > > You walk down the hall to get a glass of water, you see that there is a need > for another log on the fire and the cat needs to come in, so you set down > your glass and open the woodstove... > > I guess it could be interesting if done really well, but coming from pure > narcissism it's just real annoying. It flows from the assumption that > everybody else would see things the way I see them, naturally. > > But then, he's annoying like that so I guess it makes sense that his writing > would be too. > > > Now, Pirsig, on the other hand, writes about himself in the third person, > while narrating from the first person: I used to know this guy, I knew him > really well. He's gone now, but not forgotten for he turned into me. > > See, the "me" that is in the past is just as much an entity separate from > who I am now, than any other person I've read about in history books. But > we don't think like that. We should, but we don't. But writing that way > sort of forces you to confront the real situation as it is, and to an > extent, by playing with the definitions of self, frees you from the > ego-attachment to your old self. > > And really, when I'm writing about the guy I used to be, why should I do him > any favors? He's certainly never done me any. If he had any consideration > for me, he'd have dieted and exercized more and taken better care of his > body so that when it came time for me to use it, I'd be in real good shape. > > On the other hand, I can't criticize him too hard because if I was in his > position, I'd probably have done the same thing. In fact, that's what > happened. > > Anyway, I wonder if any of you literary types are familiar with this > technique and know what it's called. Lots of writers have referred to their > past in the third person, but not from the ongoing narration of the first > person. Pirsig did it because his past person was separated from his > present person by electroshock therapy, but it doesn't take anything that > dramatic to realize the separation. All it takes is a realization of a > momentary separation between him and me. > 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/ _______________________________________________________________________ Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars... 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/
