Hello all,
This "slow reading" programme has given me the chance to bring up
something that has long interested me. In Chapter One of Lila, Pirsig
introduces us to three characters:
Lila, Rigel and Capella. Why are these the names he chose?
Lila is fairly obviously derived fromthe Hindu "Lila", but there may be
an interesting parallel to the Babylonian/Hebrew myth of Lilith, and I
assume that Pirsig intended this.
The Hebrew version of the myth is associated with the Creation story.
Genesis first mentions that God first created man & woman (as equals);
only later comes the story of Eve's creation from Adam's rib. The legend
is that the first woman was Lilith who demanded full equality with her
male partner and was thus banished. She then became a demon temptress of
men and small children through all ages - lying in wait, particularly
near water!
Now for Rigel - the name means "foot", and that's the Babylonian name
atsronomers use for the foot star of the constellation Orion. There
seems to be a biblical association of Orion with Nimrod, and the book of
Job calls the constellation Orion "Kessil", the fool.
Is Pirsig deliberately calling Rigel a fool?
Capella is the brightest star of another contellation, the Charioteer -
quite appropriate for Rigel's boatman. I don't know much about the myths
surrounding the constellation, but suspect that here too Pirsig had
something in mind. Can anyone help?
Of course, I could be wrong about all this. I also discovered that
"Lila" and "Rigel" are both the names of computer software packages, and
we do know that Pirsig worked documenting software for a while. I
personally will be greatly disappointed if this is where he got the
names from.
I'd be interested to here what other messages people find "between the
lines".
Jonathan
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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