MOQ Foci! Old and new!
Looks like March is going to be an interesting month. David B.
gave us an opening clue by his aerial ('Apocalypse Now'?)
approach, while Denis issued a warning about us having to pay for
this break of rules :-). Anyway, it allows for many threads - too
many perhaps, we better heed David's request of not jumping
ahead.
Jonathan comments on the Lila/hindu lila coincidence and the
meaning behind the names Rigel and Capella. I once
asked Pirsig in a letter about the pronunciation of Lila and he
answered as in 'lilac' and added: " It was the unsubtlety of the lilac
odor and the hardiness of the bush that helped suggest her name
to me". Somewhere else he has said that he knew nothing about
lila of the Vedas, but am not able to find where. The use of the star
names I know nothing about, but as a sailor Pirsig certainly
became familiar with the star names and just used them for
convenience's sake .....but Jonathan may be right.
Tony Westley wrote:
> Hello all,
Glad to meet you Tony and welcome to the discussion
> My perspective from Chapters 1 - 3.
> "It's so strange, he thought. All the tricks and games and lines and
> promises to get them into bed with you and you work so hard at it and
> nothing happens. And then someone like this comes along and you don't try
> much of anything at all and then she's the one you wake up next to. It doesn
> 't make any sense at all, he thought . . ."
> Robert Pirsig introduces to the first time reader, the separateness of a
> biological pattern. The identification of a pattern connected by threads to
> other patterns, but essentially living a life of its' own. In the same way
> perhaps, as a surgeon would look down at a human heart in the operating
> theatre. (If there are any surgeons present, please let me know!!)
Biological patterns - living organisms - are separate from each
other, but if what you allude to is "loneliness" I don't think that
feelings comes into play until at the social stage, so when
Phaerdus talks of sadness it's the social pattern that speaks. But
perhaps we should wait until this comes up in the book..
***********************************
As for myself there is an aspect of the first three chapters that I
want to pause at. It seeps through that Ph�drus and Lila have had
some earlier encounters. He recognizes her at the cafe that night,
but it is very unclear where and when their first meeting took place.
>From the streetcar scene it's hard to decide of what age P. and Lila
are. She sounds like a mere teenager while he is somewhat older -
already a teacher? The beach episode when he walks up to her to
discover that she isn't Lila is some time later, but still in the remote
past.
Vagueness is interesting, everybody will make up their own story,
but what touched me so deeply when I first read it in LILA was the
sadness about the too-lateness of it all. The two of them meeting
again when they are embittered middle-aged, unfit for starting
anew. The trip down the river shows how precarious their
relationship is, she easily offended and him incapable of being
"nice". Cory Ramage may have the same perception of this part,
he writes so very well about it (and other things. The big G was
quite a thing to think about).
And yet in spite of the distance that exists between the intellect-
centred P and the biology-centred Lila, both dislike the socially-
centred Rigel who knows his way around the public square. There
is none the bookish person envy as much as the social lion. The
biological person also covets social finesse - but for different
reasons and from another perspective.
This has some bearing on the intellect-biology alliance against
society, but that comes later so I'll let it rest. What I have learned
on a personal plane and found reflected in LILA is that the
intellectual- and the biological focussed may take a liking to each
other in a common dislike - or helpless desire - for the coveted
social skilled.
This does does not mean that they aren't part of the social value
level (or that a bio-centred person isn't part of the intellectual level),
humans are of all levels and can't avoid social values' mighty
influence, it's just that they are unskilled when it comes to
displaying its virtues: "Hypocrisy" in their vocabulary that is such
an idigenous part of a community. Ever noticed how timidly we
speak in the open compared to the merciless inner person who
routinely sentences people to death?
:-).
Better have this published before someone else writes something
much better about it (which Cory and David B already have!), I am
awed at DMB's tremendous energy, capacity, knowledge (even
about non-US matters) and skill.
Bo
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
