> Arlo said: > It just struck me as coming close to the height of absurdity to declare > that the man who's ideas we are here (ostensibly) to discuss is the > "least" authority on what those ideas are. It would be like me saying, > "Let's talk about what John's ideas are, but the person who we can > ignore the most in that discussion is John". > > > > dmb says: > > But then hacks get their hands on these not very interesting ideas and > before you know it everything means anything anybody wants it mean and > - presto! - we're all swimming in sea of bullshit. It quickly turns > into nothing but sheer intellectual debauchery. And then anyone who > protests against this nonsense is Hitler. >
[Mary replies] These are not my assertions, but Pirsig's. Zmm Ch 16. Phædrus second metaphysical phase was a total disaster. Before the electrodes were attached to his head hed lost everything tangible: money, property, children; even his rights as a citizen had been taken away from him by order of the court. All he had left was his one crazy lone dream of Quality, a map of a route across the mountain, for which he had sacrificed everything. Then, after the electrodes were attached, he lost that. I will never know all that was in his head at that time, nor will anyone else. Whats left now is just fragments: debris, scattered notes, which can be pieced together but which leave huge areas unexplained. When I first discovered this debris I felt like some agricultural peasant near the outskirts of, say, Athens, who occasionally and without much surprise plows up stones that have strange designs on them. I knew that these were part of some larger overall design that had existed in the past, but it was far beyond my comprehension. ... It is probably a long way from what he thought. When trying to recreate a whole pattern by deduction from fragments I am bound to commit errors and put down inconsistencies, for which I must ask some indulgence. In many cases the fragments are ambiguous; a number of different conclusions could be drawn. If something is wrong theres a good chance that the error isnt in what he thought but in my reconstruction of it, and a better reconstruction can later be found. --- You see, the person with the original inspiration no longer exists. Robert Pirsig the author is not the person who experienced the original insight. He has no direct memory of it. No 'arloian' absurdity exists, and if there is any 'bullshit', it is in the 'DuMB' complaints. 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
