John, dmb, Matt, Ian, Mark, and All --
First I want to thank three of you for responding to my request for
information on Caryl Johnston -- especially Matt, who provided links to her
blog site and archived responses. Meta-Q is "dedicated to the furtherance
of R. Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality," and the home page features Caryl's
essay 'In Search of Quality' which has been updated from 2007 and is the
best analysis of Pirsig's philosophy I've read since Anthony McWatt's
doctoral thesis. For anyone who may be interested, this blog is at
www.meta-q.blogspot.com/.
I had promised to report on the meeting yesterday at which Caryl was guest
speaker on this topic.
After being treated to lunch at a quaint little 'coffee-house' by our friend
Tranda, Rosalie and I accompanied her for the short walk along Germantown
Ave. to the Chestnut Hill Library, where Tranda led us to a large conference
room at the rear of the building. There we were personally welcomed by Ms.
Johnston, who looked a bit older than the photo on the flyer, and we took
our seats along with some two dozen others, including Lewis DuPont Smith, a
board member of the prestigious Waldorf School of Philadephia. (Smith had
given a lecture on Friedrich Schiller that Tranda attended in February of
this year.) We observed a copy each of ZMM and LILA displayed on the
podium, behind which hung a large screen used for a PowerPoint presentation
at the end of the lecture.
Caryl began her talk by asking: "Why do we keep doing things that are
supposedly 'reasonable' even when they are no longer working?" "This is one
of the questions Robert Pirsig asked in an extraordinarily popular book that
was printed in 23 languages," she told her audience; "It's about a search
for the Good, a philosophical odyssey to the roots of Western thinking.
Pirsig called it the 'Metaphysics of Quality'."
The speaker then reviewed the highlights of Pirsig's career -- his early
study of chemistry and shift to philosophy at the University of Minnesota;
his post-graduate studies at a Hindu university in India; his focus on
Quality while teaching a writing course in Montana; his mental breakdown,
shock therapy, and resulting divorce in 1976; the decision to write a
semi-autobographical novel based on a cross-country bike trip with his son
Chris; the carry-over of the name 'Phaedrus' as his alter-ego in a second
book about a boat trip down the Hudson River; the tragic murder of Chris in
1979; and the author's second marriage and subsequent retirement in the 90s.
Most of the lecture was a recap of the essay mentioned above, with special
attention given to a list of human activities for each of the four Static
Quality levels which didn't seem to match the author's categories IMO and
may have been improvised. Caryl made a point of the fact that the Sophists'
quest for "Quality" conflicted with the Platonists' dialectical approach to
discover "Truth", although there was some question as to which was the more
"pragmatic" in the Jamesian sense. She also expressed disappointment that,
despite the popularity of ZMM among U.S. baby-boomers, Pirsig's message has
had a more lasting affect on the British public, suggesting that this may be
due to their superior classical education.
Following the group discussion, I took the opportunity to introduce myself
to Caryl as a participant of the forum that had elicited Matt's comments,
which seemed to pique her interest, as did the promotion card I handed her
on my book. As we exchanged contact information, I asked if she had read
the author's SODV presentation paper, which she had not; so I suggested she
do so. We were invited to join the others for refreshments at a nearby
tavern, but had to decline due to other commitments. It surprised us to
learn that this was her first public appearance as a speaker on philosophy.
We left the library feeling that Caryl is a far better writer than
philosopher, and that if the purpose of the lecture was to show how
understanding Quality is the key to resolving "our contemporary dilemmas and
divisive social issues" as billed, we are still "in search of" it.
Respectfully submitted,
Ham
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