Michael said:
Dear Folks -
Why is there so much acrimony?
Love,
MRB
Matt:
"The first thing to realize about the
MD is that it is not an
Oprah-style book discussion group. It may look like
it from the
outside, but rarely does it function that way. We do not tend to
gather ‘round and discuss our favorite passages once a month and
how they
make us feel. That happens, but not very often.
It isn’t bad
when it happens,
nor is it discouraged, but people generally
gather
for something else. Instead,
the MD functions as a community of
professional Pirsigian interpreters whose
aim is to excavate the
(micro and macro) meanings of Pirsig’s written
corpus. By
“professional” I certainly do not mean that we get paid
for it. Rather,
I want to distinguish a lax conversation about such and
such a topic
(what one might find in a book-of-the-month club) with an inquiry
into such and such a topic. The difference is roughly that we don’t
simply offer our opinions about a topic (though there is an awful lot
of that,
too), we offer arguments on behalf of our
opinions in the
hopes of establishing
some sort of consensus of opinion. In this
case, we hope to establish a consensus
on the best interpretation
(micro and macro) of Pirsig’s philosophy, though,
given the nature
of the beast, this is linked inexorably with the best kind
of
philosophy in general.
"Realizing that the MD functions as a
quasi-professional interpretive
community will help explain the unmistakable
odor of gunpowder
and blood one will smell after listening in on the discussions
for a
week. This is because, like all interpretive communities, it is highly
competitive and arguments are wielded like
weapons to assert
the dominance of
the interpretations they are in the service of.
Some people, when happening
upon the MD, our disgusted by the
foul stench of strife that rips through the
MD most of the time. They
deplore the antagonistic fervor with which people
attack, parry,
and riposte. If you are sympathetic with this inclination, then
the
MD may not be the place for you. As I said, it is simply the nature
of the
beast."
----- from "Open Letter to New Participants of the Discussion Groups"
Matt
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