Wow Mary! You are wonderful!!! You've done a wonderful thing. Many, many thanks.
I just returned from visiting my step-father, and haven't had time to read it yet. Three cheers and loud applause for Mary. Marsha On May 31, 2010, at 2:11 PM, Mary wrote: > The MoQ & Art > Robert M. Pirsig, 2010 > > [Robert M. Pirsig sits on a couch with a young baby, his granddaughter, on > his lap] > > "Ok, here we go." > > "This is Lilly and I am Robert Pirsig, and she is my granddaughter. I read > that films are always much more successful when they have a beautiful woman > in it, and I thought I'd include her to start with." > > "She is Nell's daughter, and Nell was about this age when you may remember > that I wrote an addendum at the end of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle > Maintenance with Nell tapping on the typewriter, and I thought maybe this > time, Lilly could be in an international film and that would be her start in > life. But now I'm laughing a little because Nell and Wendy are on the other > side of the camera waving at Lilly to get her to smile. Did she smile? Is > she smiling?" > > [Lilly smiling as Pirsig hands her off camera] > > "Ok, Lilly. You're gonna go to your Momma. Here you go!" > > "Now, last January, I think it was, Anthony McWatt asked me to do a short > film for this meeting at Oxford, and I made an effort, but I just didn't > like it and I junked it. But I made a lot of notes and I gave them to > Anthony and I said, here, you can do what you want with them. What he > wanted to do with them was give them right back to me and tell me, "Make > that film!" So, that's what I'm doing right now." > > "He's also typed up my notes in a way that I can just read them and add-lib. > This is not a formal presentation. This is just a series of little, good > ideas I've had from time to time. I think you should really use them as > starting points of thought rather than ending points of thought, which is > what art is all about anyway." > > "The use of film has both advantages and disadvantages. I wrote this. The > advantage is that if I say something really stupid, I can edit it out before > anybody finds out about it, and I can take a coffee break between > paragraphs, or stop and think about something before going on. I've done > that for several months and now I guess I can go on. The disadvantage > really is that it's difficult for me to guess how much of you already know > about the Metaphysics of Quality. So I may be oversimplifying something or > omitting something without realizing that nobody knows what I'm talking > about. I can't answer questions and I can't read from faces whether what > I'm saying is getting across or not the way I would in a discussion, so I'll > have to leave part of that to Dr. McWatt, and Patrick Dourly(?), and David > Buchanan. All good men." > > "To begin with, I have here, my best line concerning art is in chapter 21 of > Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, where it says, quote, "Art is > high Quality endeavor. That's all that really needs to be said. Or, if > something more high-sounding is demanded, art is the Godhead as revealed in > the works of man." In the MoQ, those two statements are identical, and if > you can get from one to the other you will have understood Zen and the Art > of Motorcycle Maintenance." > > "I agree with Patrick Dourly that this corresponds to Gengrich's(?) notion > of "art as mastery". He does not think of art as an object (I think that > was his first sentence) and neither does Zen and the Art of Motorcycle > Maintenance or my ideas of the Metaphysics of Quality. Art is endeavor. > Whether it's gonna come out right or not, it's still art. It's what you do. > It's who you are as a person that makes it art or not art." > > "Now, I also added that there are fundamentally two types of art, which I > don't think Gengrich had, at least I didn't notice them, and one is static > art, which is according to the rules, and can be achieved according to > careful study and ability to do as you're told. And then there's Dynamic > art, which is another whole different story, where there are no rules at > all, and you just do it according to your own inner - not even your own > inner self - do it to what Orientals would call the Dharma. " > > "Now, Dharma is one of the most difficult words to translate into English > because it's usually translated as meaning "law", but that's only half of > Dharma. The other half of Dharma is "duty to oneself", or "duty to a > perfect self". If you, through enlightenment, become a perfect self, then > all you'll ever do is Dharma, but if you're living in the world of illusion, > then you better follow the law and not just do as you damn please." > > "When I was a child, my Mother bought me a whole series of - this was in > 1920, 30, or so - my Mother bought me a whole series of "Book House", and > one of the stories, which was one of my favorites, was about a Russian boy. > He was a prince, and he lived in a magic room that was surrounded with > mirrors. And he kept looking at the mirrors day after day, admiring himself > this way and admiring himself that way and thinking he was the most > wonderful person in the world. But what he didn't notice was that every day > the windows closed a little. Every window started to close a little, and he > still didn't notice until there was almost no light in the room at all. > They almost completely closed - and then they did close. And then all of a > sudden he vanished! He couldn't find himself in the mirrors anymore and he > didn't know what to do. So he sobbed and cried and rested and he sat around > for a few days and repented the fact that he'd been looking in mirrors all > this time, when he should have watched the windows and everything. Then one > day as he sat in his tears and silence, the windows opened a crack and he > looked out and it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in his life. > He was seeing something he really wanted to see for the first time. Well, > the windows knew about that and they opened another crack. And so they > opened wider and wider and wider and wider as the boy, the prince, never > realized they were doing so until they were wide open and when he looked > out, and he was a complete person who was ready to be the Czar of Russia. > And the story, the legend, goes that he was the greatest Czar in Russia's > history." > > "The idea, as it ties into Zen is that the most deadly enemy of Zen is > egotism, and I would say that's the most deadly enemy of art. If you do art > for your own sake, it isn't gonna be any good. It's gonna be hammy. It's > gonna be artsy-fartsy it's sometimes called. It'll reflect not what you > see, but an illusion of who you think you are. And a lot of artists get > away with that, I guess, but it's not good art from the standpoint of Zen." > > "Ok, now I'm gonna get to page two." > > "Oh, art as placed in the levels of evolution. Well, if you read the > Metaphysics of Quality, you know there are four levels of evolution: the > Inorganic, the Biological, the Social, and the Intellectual. And art is a > mixture of all of those with Dynamic Quality if it's really art - not - I > say mixture - I don't say it's completely Dynamic Quality. Finger painting > by a two year old is Dynamic. But it's a mixture of somebody who knows how > to satisfy the art traditions of history but at the same time has a > direction that he wants to go on his own to some extent, so he's not a > complete copy-cat and he's not a complete wild-man - he's in between. And, > the amount of Dynamic Quality should not be overcome by Intellectual > Quality, by these static patterns. At the same time, the static patterns or > the intellect- the Dynamic Quality should not overcome your static patterns > to a point where it's meaningless to a person who writes." > > "Now there've been extreme cases, like say, Picasso, who, when he first came > out shocked everybody with these strange paintings, but if you look back at > Picasso's history, you find that he was a very talented artist by the rules. > He didn't do that because he didn't know any better, he did it because he > knew better and he wanted to go further. So that's what I'm talking about > there." > > "It's important to keep in mind that the Dynamic beauty of a piece of music > can be recognized before reading any static analysis explaining why the > music is beautiful. A lot of people who are immersed in static patterns and > do not see Dynamic Quality clearly will say, "What's it all about? I don't > understand it. I don't, I don't know what he's trying to do." What they're > doing is they're looking for static patterns when they should just be > responding to the art itself." > > "People immersed in science often regard art as rather trivial because they > think it's "subjective" (that's the word they'll use for it) and it doesn't > really deal with the reality of the world. However, the Metaphysics is that > which deals with the fundamental reality of the world, which is not > subjective. So, if you change the metaphysics that I've done on the MoQ, > then you've changed the evaluation of art and beauty. I would say that art > is the highest of human endeavors under the defin - not definition - but the > description of art as I've given it in ZMM and particularly in Lila." > > "Now, "it's not a footnote to Plato", it says here. Plato didn't like art > very much, and he didn't like poets, and he didn't like Sophists, and what > he wanted to do was take a world which was all art, ancient Greece, and > improve it by giving it some intellectual direction. And he did - > enormously. I wrote in one introduction to Coffee with Plato that we live > inside the mind of Plato. That Plato is the man who invented reason, > almost, as we see it today. If you look at cultures outside of America, or > if you look at cultures before Plato, you find there wasn't much reason in > them. They settled disputes by revenge rather than by law and so on." > > "For serious artists", it says here, "Quality should not be considered > subjective, Quality should be considered as reality itself." That's very > important. And if you can get that reality itself which is free from > subjectivity, free from ego, you have art." > > "Now it says, "Art and Social Quality. The MoQ elevates art from a socially > isolated activity to a socially central activity. Yeah, hopefully! But > it's in competition with science and industry and everything else, and I > think it has to fight those things. But, you know, it's carried on the > fight pretty well. You know, when people go to see movies they don't want > movies about technical processes so much. They want movies that are > artistically done." > > "There are a lot of people who will become artists and they're kind of > honored for that, except by the really traditional static people, the > scientist types. I shouldn't abuse scientists. There are plenty of artists > in science, in fact, I did a lecture in Belgium pointing out that science is > an art if it's done in a certain way, and I used the examples of Werner > Heisenberg and Neils Bohr as two artists trying to plow into something > they'd never dealt with before. And I recommend that to you if you can find > it somewhere. I think it's on the internet." > > "Now art and Biological Quality, yeah, it's such as the skill of a painter, > a sculptor, a musician has in controlling how a brush or a musical > instrument is held. It's obvious you're not gonna paint just by hearing > intellectual discussions of the matter, but physical practice makes > perfect." > > "Now, ok, concluding thoughts." > > "Experience in Bozeman. My thoughts are not a theoretical deduction from > what someone else has said about art. It was derived from direct experience > in the classroom where the art of writing was being taught. If one > considers creative writing to be an art form, then ZMM is about the teaching > of the art itself rather than the teaching of the intellectualization of art > - known as literature. I can talk for hours about experiences I had doing > this, and how classes, once they saw what I wanted. I used to tell them, "I > don't care what you do, just so it's good." And some of them were terribly > confused by that. "Well, how do we know what's good?" I said, "You know > what's good! We proved it, because we read all these papers and we all > agreed what was good. So you just write something that's good." And some > of them just loved that, and these were the artists, of course, and some of > them hated it, and these were the static people. But generally the classes > were much happier when they all knew what I want." > > "It says here, "The mark of an artist is that he sees Quality as a reality - > not something superficial." For example, jazz musicians such as Charlie > Byrd or John Coltrane as opposed to the squares mentioned in ZMM." > > "I'll leave you with this final thought. George Orwell said, "To see what > is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle." I really like > that. Quality is right in front of everyone's nose all the time. Some see > it, some don't, but once one sees that Quality clearly and takes it as a > guide for his whole life, then he becomes an artist, a real artist, > regardless of what he happens to be doing at the moment." > > "Now Anthony has some parentheses here saying, "loud applause and cheers!" > So you can do that if you want to." > > "Ok, that's it." > > [Laughter] > > > > Mary > > - The most important thing you will ever make is a realization. > > > > 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/md/archives.html ___ 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/md/archives.html
