Ian, I missed the plaque. Dang. I did have the best lunch in Bozeman on my way back home to California. Carrot ginger soup - yum! I'm going back.
John Sent from my iPhone On Nov 10, 2011, at 1:47 AM, Ian Glendinning <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi John, > > Yes, I was always amazed that all that "radical teaching" experience, and > the interaction with Sarah's "seed crystal" came in only his first term of > teaching. I fact he only taught for two academic years in Bozeman (the > whole of his teaching experience) before the Chicago events. (My own son is > already a more experienced classroom teacher than Bob ever was - to put it > in perspective.) > > I stopped adding detail to the biog-timeline when Mark Richardson took up > the baton. His book (and Henry Gurr's site, and the Sven Lindqvist articles > on his political activity - all in the Bozeman records) contains more info > on Sarah and her own work. Oddly enough I'm on a re-read of Mark's book - > he built on all the biographical materials I handed over to him. > > In terms of biographical writing, this period should be elaborated more, > (as should the strangely anti-climactic period in Benares). A project for > someone. > > Nice to stand for a moment at the fount of the quality phenomenon. Agreed. > (Incidentally, the college is currently quite active on some arrangements > to acknowledge Pirsig's work, with Gennie's daughter too. Did you see the > plaque ?) > Ian > > On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 6:39 PM, John Carl <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I love my new iPhone, however it does confuse me sometimes when I've >> copied a quote that somebody said and I don't remember where I got it. >> So to whoever said: >> >> "Reading over some of his annotations in LILA'S CHILD as well as his >> notes to Ant it >> seems that he is still tweaking the MOQ, adding nuances to it that >> heretofore might have escaped his attention. It seems best to allow >> ourselves that same latitude... not to be too certain about any aspect >> of philosophy or of life." >> >> >> I just want to respond and say thanks, and I agree completely. Of all >> the levels, the 4th is the most dynamic, the most in flux and the most >> evolving. It might take many millenia for an insect or an amoeba to >> evolve, but an idea about evolution can be born on an ocean voyage >> and grow to full significance within a decade. And I'd like to point >> out that the above quote points to something very significant indeed - >> that the MoQ isn't SQ, its DQ. Inherently and self-avowedly. >> >> Coming down from Elkhorn Pass, my RV plugging along, even though it's >> batteries are shot and its alternator dying, as I could plainly see by >> my slowing windshield wipers trying to keep up with the increasing >> snow, I hadn't much room in my heart for metaphysical concerns. Too >> many practical matters weighed down upon me. Like, if I had enough >> gas to make it to Walmart in Bozeman. >> >> I did know that there was a Walmart in Bozeman, and I knew which exit >> to take because I had a cell phone connection to my wife back in >> California, who had an internet connection which gave me the >> information I needed. Thank God for modern times. But I was pretty >> sure I would run out of gas long before I got there, unless I stopped >> and filled up. And if I stopped for gas, I'd have to shut off the >> engine and if I shut off the engine, I knew I couldn't get it >> started again. Well, at least you're supposed to shut off the engine, >> but the tanks were so far from the engine in the RV that maybe it >> wouldn't be a problem. Illegal, but maybe the rules aren't as >> strictly enforced in Montana as they are in California. As it turned >> out, that is true and so I put my last $70 into my gas guzzling beast >> - nicknamed "Cuzzin Ed" from the Chevy Chase movie, Nat Lampoon Xmas >> Vacation - and drove on to the welcoming arms of Walmart. Home of the >> free parking, free RV camping and cheap batteries and easy money >> center. My ma wired me the funds when I got there, and I spent a dark >> and cold night in the parking lot while the snow fell, but warmed by >> the thought of Western Union funds in the morning. >> >> And wen they came, and the new batteries were installed, and I had >> light, water and central heating again, all the amenities of home, >> life looked brighter, and the snow melted and the streets of Bozeman >> beckoned me and my bike. >> >> Everywhere was haunted by the thoughts of the MoQ. I imagined to >> myself, with a wry grin, as I walked up and down the aisles of >> Walmart, just think, Pirsig once stood at this same checkstand... >> >> I am enraptured. >> >> Ok, despite the sarcastic tone, there was something there that I >> couldn't explain. An excitement at being in the same environment >> which caused all this debate and excitement. Ideas arise out of a >> place, come from an environment of place, as well as environment of >> ideas. >> >> And its not really a celebrity-messiah trip, because Pirsig described >> it the same! And you can't have a messiah getting shivers over his >> own self, or you've just another system of self-aggrandizement in >> disguise. When the Narrator of ZAMM goes back and walks in those >> halls of learning, HE gets the same shivery excitement I experienced >> in the few days following as I explored more of the town and finally >> entered the campus at MSU. In the book he describes the rising >> excitement, and I say its more than discovering himself, it's >> recovering an event. We can sense the rising excitement and the >> really amazing thing, is he runs into somebody else who confirms this >> shivery moment. He presumes a former student, but her gasp of >> recognition, certainly signifies something beyond mere, "hey, how ya >> been doin?" >> >> Something happened here. Something big. Something REAL big. And >> there's a shivery excitement in the air of the place, that lingers >> still. An intellectual pattern was born. It didn't so much come FROM >> a man, Robert M. Pirsig, teacher of frosh rhetoric, it came through >> him and with him. For the realization that ideas are not generated by >> a self, but a self is generated by an idea, is huge in this world. >> Ideas are born, evolve, and sometimes die, just like biological >> beings. But a key difference between ideas - 4th level patterns, is >> that biological beings die and ideas can live forever. And sometimes, >> we can't see when they will die, but we can see where they were born. >> >> I imagine Izzy Newton might have had some of the same feeling, passing >> that old apple tree, or why would we even know that story? Gravity >> happens in a place. We worship places. >> >> So when you're at ground zero, where an idea was born, it lends a >> shivery excitement to the very air you breathe. I'd expect to find >> some resonance in the city itself. If the idea of Quality was born >> here, don't you think it'd retain some sort of aura? Don't you think >> there'd be that recognition in some subconscious level on the part of >> the people who live there today? A remnant of an aftershock of some >> kind? I was expecting so, and so maybe that's why I felt like I found >> what I expected. But people everywhere seemed very nice, very >> friendly. Of course, this was my first extended stop since >> fuckyoucalifornians so maybe that played into my perception a bit. >> I'd rarely crossed the great divide in my 50-odd years on the planet >> and any difference gets magnified to a first-time traveler. >> >> Also it helped that I was riding a bike. People wave to you when >> you're on a bike. Especially if you don't look all serious about it >> and wear a helmet and shin guards and paraphenalia, but just ride >> around slowly, taking in the ambiance and style of a place. It had a >> good ambiance and style. It reminded me of a cross between Nevada >> City and Santa Cruz. It had a certain touristy appeal to the down >> town, with its mix of winter skiing and summer backpacking people >> coming in, like Nevada City, and it added the glamour of being a >> college town, with trendy and youth-oriented dominating the sandwich >> parlors and pizza joints and bars of downtown. Plus a healthy dose of >> working class redneck, The workers of the world, the loggers and >> miners and hunters and fishers, that make up a lot of Montana. So a >> bit of Grass Valley thrown in as well. >> >> Later on in my journeys, I'd mention Bozeman, and how much I liked it >> and universally met with agreement. I met more than a few people in >> North Dakota, who'd come for the jobs, from Bozeman and they all >> agreed it's a great place. >> >> What struck me most about the town though, was the quality of its >> brickwork. I don't think I've ever seen such amazing big brick >> buildings. Three, five, six stories high. Decorative flourishes >> within pleasing proportions that delight the eye. Maybe those masonic >> traditions have something important to convey, with their pythagorean >> ecstasies. All I know, was I was blown away. And it occured to me, >> if I was going to describe it all, the only way would be to start with >> the bricks. They are amazing bricks. There is quality in those >> bricks. Where did they all come from? Transformed out of the clay of >> the ground, by the hands, heart and mind of man, into schools and >> churches and banks and libraries. So uniform and clean and strong. >> The land is ripe with them. Clay lays in layers with coal, sometimes >> the coal catches fire and burns underground for years and years, >> forming underground bricks, of no square shape. No classically >> defined boundaries of golden ratio, just a mish mash of broken potery, >> dug up and used to pave the roads of oil well driller in the MonDak >> region. >> >> Potential bricks. You need good bricks, to build good. So in a town >> of good bricks, it makes sense to point to them. A lot comes clear >> when you stand on the ground and see, where this idea, this MoQ was >> born. It made me curious about thinking of the when. When did Sarah >> ask that question? What better place to find out than the internet. >> What better internet to use than the ones in the University library? >> Just think, RMP himself may have once sat down at this very terminal >> and googled Quality. >> >> I looked up Ian's timeline. Thanks Ian. I also checked my mail >> briefly, and found Bo in my in box and told him where I was writing >> from, figured he'd get a kick out of it. He did, Pirsig taught >> there in '58 and '59, according to Ian's timeline. Two years. Hmmm.. >> I thought it was longer than that. Long enough to get in all sorts of >> trouble, though. I'd have to guess but I'd say it was more likely, >> that it was the second year a fellow teacher would feel comfortable >> enough to ask if you were teaching quality this year. Probably near >> the beginning of the year, because who cares near the end when its too >> late anyway. But not right at the beginning, the second month after >> the beginning-of-the-year madness has subsided - October or November >> perhaps. A time when things were plodding along enough that you could >> take some time and sit at window and stare at the scenery and think >> about good questions. >> >> October, 1959. That has a nice ring to my ears. For me, that was the >> birth of Quality. >> 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 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
