Thanks for posting that in its entirety, Dan. > > > Dan comments: > > I have never taught writing but Robert Pirsig did. I found it > illuminating that he felt the best way to teach writing isn't teaching > writing. Rather, pure quality should be taught. I am still not exactly > sure what he means by that. Any ideas? > >
An old phrase jumps to mind - if you want to paint a perfect picture, just become perfect and then paint naturally. I think that captures the essence of the connection between arete and composition. Part of the process is trying, seeing mistakes, correcting and trying again. Sorta like the answer given to the young man trying to get directions from the old lady in an old joke: How do I get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, young man. Practice. Here's the problem though, practice takes time - time spent away from the other aspects of life. Time robbed from being good and spent on writing means you have to sacrifice the attainment of perfection in order to write about it. A self-defeating proposition then. How do great writers do it? I'd guess that they are geniuses at creating extra time. A constant struggle for me, as I now have to quit practicing here, and load up my ma and her wheelchair to the hospital for her MRI. More later! J 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
