[David] So I see Lila's trajectory different than the Hippies because while both value DQ and biological quality - Lila(unlike the Hippies) is going crazy.
[Arlo] If I understand you, the difference is (more or less) that Lila, being pushed toward a mental breakdown, has an unknown future, where the hippies' future was more predictable. Is that about right? Do you think all mental illness, then, is a measure of 'someone pursuing Dynamic Quality'? Lila's mental breakdown in LILA is certainly supposed to be juxtaposed to Phaedrus' mental breakdown in ZMM. But do you think both of their 'breaks' are the same? Or same enough? As Ron pointed out, where Pirsig's break occurs because of his understanding of Quality, Lila's break occurs primarily because she is attached to the death of her child. I had a friend point out to me a while back that Pirsig's break was one of dissolution, whereas Lila's break seemed to be one of destruction. Would you agree? Do you think their breaks are the same, or enough so that they would both be evidence of following Dynamic Quality? And this leads me to an odd question. Given your comments that this 'insanity' is the DQ defining characteristic of Lila that makes her trajectory distinct from the flawed Hippie trajectory, do you think pushing people towards mental breakdowns is something we should encourage? If not, why? Side note: Pirsig mentions in LILA the use of peyote to, perhaps, step outside the Mythos in a temporary and controlled context. I think the original Hippies (first-wave Hippies) tended to do just this, but it was subsequent waves that mistook their euphoria for the vision quest. Maybe this path is a preferable alternative to experiencing mental breakdowns? :-) [David] It's hard to say that Lila confuses biological quality with DQ... In my reading - Lila appears to be driven mostly by Dynamic Quality... [Arlo] Lila suffers a mental breakdown, as you said, but apart from this, can you give me some examples to support "driven mostly by Dynamic Quality"? Marsha mentions one insight Lila has (about "I am whatever you say I am") that may be something creative (my word)? Or would you say that "going insane" and "driven mostly by Dynamic Quality" are synonymous? 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
