From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Fri Nov 01 2002 - 21:40:31 GMT
Hi Sam,
> And I now discover in Lila's Child Pirsig saying:
>
> "Yes, Phædrus is overwhelmingly intellectual. He is not a mask, really,
> just a literary character who is easy for me to write about because I share
> many of his static values a lot of the time. I don't think big self and
> small self are involved here. My editor wanted me to make him a warmer
> person in order to increase reader appeal. But making him warmer would have
> made him more social and weakened the contrasts between himself and Rigel
> and Lila that were intended to give strength to the story. The fact that
> everyone seemed to think that Phædrus was me came as an unpleasant surprise
> after the book was published. I had assumed that everyone would of course
> know that an author and a character in his book cannot possibly be the same
> person."
Pirsig says he shares many of his Phaedrus character's static values. I
take him at his word. Also in Lila's Child in the same place Pirsig
writes:
One interviewer asked me, "Are you really Phaedrus?" The answer was,
"Yes I really am Phaedrus. I also really am Richard Rigel. I also really
am Lila. I also really am the boat."
So I guess a question will always be, "Will the real Robert Pirsig please
stand up?" But when he writes things like, "What the Metaphysics of
Quality says . . ." I believe I'm safe in presuming that the statements
and conclusions which follow are Pirsig's own.
Platt
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