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Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 16:40:35 +0800 (CST)
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To: moq_focus@moq.org
Subject: MF Pirsig and the City
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Hi moffers,
My contribution to this month's program:
>"Which are your favorite passages in *Lila* and why?"
My favorite part is chapter 17 when Pirsig is walking through New York.
I like it when he goes up into the room in the hotel and looks out at
the city and says "The giant can be very good to you when it wants to."
I like all the stuff about the "Giant", about how it's grown and
consumed us and we don't even realize it's there. I think all that just
rang very true for me. I've lived in the country and I've lived in the
city, and I like the city better.
I've just moved, right into the city center, a quiet little enclave of
big expensive apartments just off the Golden Mile. It's very accessible
but no tourist would ever find it because you wouldn't think of going
behind the grotty hotel and shopping mall that separates us from the
main road to see what's there. Opposite us is the bowling club and the
cricket club and a place for army officers -- private recreation areas
for the privileged few, carelessly using up the most expensive real
estate in the world with grass and trees and swimming pools. I haven't
joined cos I can't afford to. But I will.
My street looks like a suburb. But it isn't really a suburb at all
because it's just one nice street surrounded by commercial sprawl. A lot
of the old British civil servants used to live here and they stopped the
development in front of their doorsteps, but apparently couldn't care
less about the other blocks in the area. You'd only get an oddity like
that in a colonial city. It's triad country all around us, which I sort
of like because it gives the area some edge. They're not actually on our
street, but in both directions and all the way to either edge of the
peninsula you can find them running hot pot restaurants, hair salons,
karaoke bars and saunas. And there are always skinny young Chinese with
peroxide hair hanging on the corners trying to look mean. Actually they
are mostly providing car parking services which isn't even illegal, but
they make a big deal out of it.
"The city in its endless devouring of human bodies, was creating
something better than any biological organism could by itself achieve. "
There's a Japanese restaurant about a block away. It's two storeys high
and has big lanterns outside and a fish tank with real sharks. During
the week it is always full and there are always at least a dozen people
waiting outside for tables. At the weekend there are five or six times
as many. They must easily wait two hours for a table. So obviously we
decided we had to try this apparently fantastic place. But it was
completely disappointing. The menu was the same as every other Japanese
in Hong Kong (and there are thousands), and the food was the same. Then
suddenly it was a particular Macanese restaurant that was the rage, so
we tried that to see what the fuss was all about. And it was the same
again, passable but unremarkable food. I don't think anyone actually
decides which place will be "in" today, it's just the way the city
works. Everything is about trends. It's the place to go, so they go,
nobody asks why. I know all cities have fads, but here it's hyper. Over
the summer I counted four distinct jewellery trends in as many weeks,
and they were adopted by at least 90% of the young women in Tsim Sha
Tsui. First it was the fake tattoos, then the leather thongs, then the
braided threads, then the crystal prayer beads. Each appeared, consumed
the population, then vanished completely. Now jewellery is out, and the
thing to do is hang your cellphone round your neck (nb can only be
either Panasonic GD100 or Motorola MV405 or MV410 in silver or black).
You can say it's just materialism, but I think it's more than that cos
the trends aren't necessarily expensive. I think it's about the giant
controlling everyone. It's about being in touch, knowing what's new,
being part of the flow.
There are two types of foreigners in Hong Hong, the ones who go with the
flow, and the ones who shut it out and pretend that only the other
foreigners are real. You either go way up close or stay way in the
distance. Either way you're not seeing the whole picture, but you can't
help it. You'd go nuts if you looked it straight in the eye.
"People who live here all their lives don't get that culture shock. They
can't go around being overwhelmed all the time. So to cope they seem to
pick some small part of it all and try to be on top of that....
Transients, like himself, who are overwhelmed and get manic and
depressive are maybe the ones who really understand the place, the only
ones with the Zen _shoshin_, the beginner's mind'.
Sometimes maybe when I've been away for a while and just come back, or
if I go wandering in areas I don't know, I can feel the power of the
city and yes it is overwhelming, but it's all too much to conceive of,
let alone write down. The secret is to just let a little in at a time
and always remember there's more out there. I loved going to visit my
sister-in-law in her tiny unit in one of the concrete public housing
estates. Four people in 150 square feet. The neighbours all leave their
doors open across the hallways and shout at each other. The building is
amazing when you look at it from a distance at night. The lights are on
in every window and you see all these illuminated people packed side by
side and on top of each other up into the sky -- all watching tv. And
next to that building there are another 50 all the same. And out in Sha
Tin and Tsuen Wan in the New Territories there are thousands and
thousands more. But I also like going to my boss's office ... up in the
penthouse ... have to take a special elevator to get there ... class "A"
views of the harbour and three times the size of my new apartment. He is
rich and powerful and everyone in China knows his name. You can smell
the celebrity in the air and, trust me, it smells good. In between
there's everything else: "Saying what this city is like is like saying
what Europe is like. It depends on what neighborhood you're in, what
time of day, how depressed you are." It's overcast, they're having a
frisbee tournament in the park, someone's playing the violin, badly, I'm
over my 1000-word limit and I have to go make chili.
Diana
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