Bodvar Skutvik (skutvik@online.no)
Mon, 3 Nov 1997 22:10:35 +0100
Diana wrote (Nov.01 1997):
> So let's begin.
>
> Looking over the questions, I think it's going to take forever to answer
> them all one at a time, so here are the first three together for
> starters...
Here are my entries:
> 1. What is metaphysics?
The best definition is the one that Pirsig himself gives in LILA:
"Metaphysics is what Aristotle called the First Philosophy. It's a
collection of the most general statements of a hierarchical structure
of thought....that part of philosophy which deals wich the nature
and structure of reality."
> 2. What does Metaphysics of Quality mean?
It means a different structure of reality from the present
Subject/Object Metaphysics (SOM) which says that the most basic
division of reality is between the objective world and the subjective
minds that perceive it. The Metaphysics of Quality's first axiom
is that everything is Value and that the division is a Dynamic/Static
one. The static part is subdivided into four value levels (also used
are the terms "patterns", "dimensions" and "areas").
> 3. Why did Pirsig write Lila?
He wrote it to promote the enlarged version of the Quality idea that
had been present in his first book "Zen, and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance". At first LILA had been planned as an anthropological
study which would demonstrate the Dynamic/Static division by
contrasting the nomadic North American Indians to the white
European settlers, but he soon realized that it would not do. He
would neither be accepted by the scientific establishment nor
understood by the public. Partly for his lack of anthropological
credentials, but mostly because of the metaphysical presuppositions
of SOM would mess up his message, so he finally understood that he
had to go to the root - to metaphysics itself.
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For good measure I enter my answers to Steve Wood's list too.
What is Pirsig doing now?
He is living quietly in Portsmouth New Hampshire, USA. He admits
to being a recluse, but says that it is not due to any bitterness:
".. even if everyone understood LILA I would be that way. The
Buddhist monk has a precept against indulging in idle co ersation,
and I think the basis for that precept is what motivates me" (letter
of Aug. 19. 1997). What he is doing of writing is not known, but that
he is working on something is for sure. Hopefully we will
soon know.
What are the sales of the two books?
It is well known that "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
(ZMM) was a formidable success. How many copies that were sold
is not known (it still sells), but it is millions. In an
interview he told that only the rights for the paperback version
earned him two hundred and ten thousand (1975) dollars! LILA had an
initial boom shortly after it was published in 1991, but the sales
fell off after a while. Then they picked up again and in 1995 sales
tripled in Japan for instance, and the same year the book was
published in Chinese, (Taiwan) and later also mainland China.
How much of LILA is autobiographical?
This is always hard to tell. Phædrus is obviously only a lightly
camouflaged Robert Pirsig, as he was in the ZMM, but Lila herself has
no living model that I know of. She bears no resemblance to his
level- headed wife Wendy, that is for sure. The trip dow the Hudson
River is authentic in the sense that Pirsig brought his boat "Areté"
from the Big Lakes to New York City before the trip across the
Atlantic Ocean to Europe in 1980 (?). The "Cleveland
Harbour" episode also reflects his sailing experience on the Big
Lakes. The hotel episode with Robert Redford may well have occurred
as the rights for filming the ZMM was negotiated for a period (re.
his letter to Redford in the Steele and DiSanto "Guidebook to ZMM").
What is the public reaction to these books?
The reaction to the first book in 1974 was overwhelmingly positive,
as the sales indicate. ZMM is usually regarded as the better novel
and LILA as a not so successful sequel, but philosophically it is
another story. The first book is the stirring story of how he came to
conceive the basic quality idea and what that cost him, LILA - even
if written along similar outlines - is a presentation of the
full-fledged philosophical system and necessarily a more difficult
book, and for that reason not so popular. The reader who wants to be
entertained don't always see the importance of what he is reading.
What do other philosophers think of his work?
The reaction that he foresaw for his anthropological venture has
more or less been fulfilled by LILA too. Academical philosphers
seemingly don't want to look into his Quality idea. Usually new ideas
or paradigms are supposed to start within the academical circles and
spread into society, not the other way round. The few
reviews published have been overwhelmingly negative - outright
vicious - and far too violent for a "mere" philosophical idea.
Perhaps the unheard of magnitude of what Pirsig is saying and the
frustration over not finding the weak point of his MOQ is the
reason.
MHO
Bodvar
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