Bodvar Skutvik (skutvik@online.no)
Mon, 1 Dec 1997 17:58:51 +0100
Maggie wrote to all LS:
> Hi everyone!
>
> I'm going to undertake a very small project for the LS site, and need your input
> when you get a chance.
>
> I'd like to gather a collection of Pirsig's statements where they will be a
> visible to people who visit. So, what I'd like from you is to select three
> quotations that you consider significant. Please include page numbers, edition,
> hardback, paperback, etc. if you have them at hand. If not, don't worry about
> it. I can do it easily enough.
-----------------------
Maggie. Here are my three favourite Pirsig quotations. "Zen and the
Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." (Edition: Corgi Paperback 1976).
"Lila": (Bantam Press. Hardcover 1991)
No 1. (ZMM page 245) "In our highly complex organic state we advanced
organisms respond to our environment with an invention of many
marvelous analogues. We invent earth and heavens, trees, stones and
oceans, gods, music, arts, language, philosophy, engineering,
civilization and science. We call these analogues reality. And they
ARE reality. We mesmerize our in the name of truth into knowing that
they ARE reality. We throw anyone who does not accept these analogues
into an insane asylum. But that which causes us to invent the
analogues is Quality. Quality is the continuous stimulus which our
environment puts upon us to create the the world in which we live. All
of it. Every last bit of it."
This was the "Rosetta Stone", the code cracker, that opened up the
door to Pirsig's universe. It relieved me from my loneliness, and
will for ever - for me - be THE Pirsig quotation. I cannot even copy
it without being moved.
No. 2. (LILA page 64) "What was clear was that if he was going to do
anything with anthropology the place to do it was not in anthropology
itself but in the general body of assumptions upon which it rests. The
solution to the anthropological blockage was not to try to construct
some new anthropological theoretic structure but to first find some
solid ground upon which such a structure can be constructed. It was
this conclusion that placed him right i in the middle of the field of
philosophy known as metaphysics."
This is when Phædrus realizes the enormity of his task and what depth
he has to start from.
No. 3. (page 167) "Morality is not a simple set of rules. It's a very
complex struggle of conflicting patterns of value. This conflict is
the residue of evolution. As new patterns evolve they come into
conflicts with old ones. Each stage of evolution creates in its wake a
wash of problems. It's out of this struggle between conflicting static
patterns that the concepts of good and evil arise. Thus, the evil of
disease which the doctor is absolutely morally committed to stop is not
an evil within the germ's lower static pattern of morality. The germ
is making a moral effort to stave off its own destruction by
lower-level inorganic forces of evil."
Of all the Subject/Object Metaphysics generated "platypi", the
Good/Evil is the chief mystery, so I pick this quotation which best
sums up the MOQ solution of the problem (explaining is halfway to
solving).
NB! It's been difficult to chose from books that are covered with
underlinings and exclamation marks. But to me these passages sums up
the extraorinary qualities of Pirsig's ideas and "Phaedrus" attitude to his
own achievement.
Bo.
PS. The Pirsig quotations is a good idea, another thing that I have
been thinking about is an index - or "concordance", i.e: where to find
pages (in LILA preferably) where Pirsig treats this and that issue and
mentions so and so word. Is it possible to make such a one by use of
computer?
-- post message - mailto:skwok@spark.net.hk unsubscribe/queries - mailto:diana@asiantravel.com homepage - http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/4670
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