[MD] Avatars, SOM and me

[Mary]

Hi John,

You write wonderfully imaginative posts.  You are already a writer, and a
good one.  I think the point of view you choose will be whatever lends
itself to the telling of your story.  Is this an autobiography you have in
mind?  Why not be straightforward and use first person, then?  If it's good
enough, you can still make the top of the best-seller list without being a
celebrity.  I agree with you about second person.  If not done carefully it
can come off as supercilious or presumptive.  What makes you think everyone
would make your choices?

I have been thinking about writing a book too for the past 3 years.  Every
since I came to my senses. The sheltered Daddy's girl who did everything
right; put herself through college, honor student, successful career,
friends, nice home, cars, etc., etc., ad nauseum until the day she met the
Biological Level head-on in the form of her third husband.  Wow!  Boy do I
have stories - and I think my perspective is unique.  I was not a wild
child, but became a wild adult there for a while.  All it took was for Daddy
to die on my 41st birthday.  This set a chain of events in motion that had
probably been poised to happen all along.  You see, I happen to believe that
_everything_ that happens to us is our own fault.

A few years ago some woman journalist wrote a book, "Nickel and Dimed", I
think it was called.  She went undercover to live the life of the poor in
America, and attempted to show how hard even doing the smallest things to
improve one's situation could be.  She didn't know the half of it.  For
instance, did you know that when you are on food stamps you can buy food,
but not toilet paper or toothpaste?  I used to know the best place to get an
inspection sticker without car insurance for the price of a six-pack of
beer.  This can be life-saving knowledge since there is absolutely no public
transportation in Texas unless you happen to live in downtown Dallas.  There
are plenty of cops looking at stickers as they pass you on the road, though.
There's a whole underworld out there that most middle-class type people
never see.  Human tragedies big and small are playing out daily.

- Mary
The most important thing you will ever make is a realization.

-----Original Message-----
From: moq_discuss-bounces at lists.moqtalk.org
[mailto:moq_discuss-bounces at lists.moqtalk.org] On Behalf Of John Carl
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 4:18 AM
To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
Subject: [MD] Avatars, SOM and me

You had to suffer shipwreck though your own efforts before you were ready to
seize the lifebelt he threw you.... The Master knows you and each of his
pupils much better than we know ourselves.  He reads in the souls of his
pupils more than they care to admit.

Eugen Herrigel, Zen and the Art of Archery


So I was thinking the other day, about writing.  My brother in law wrote a
book about when he and Lu were kids growing up in Africa and he used a
literary device, I think it's called the "second person objective" or
something like that.  It went something like this:

You walk down the hall to get a glass of water, you see that there is a need
for another log on the fire and the cat needs to come in, so you set down
your glass and open the woodstove...

I guess it could be interesting if done really well, but coming from pure
narcissism it's just real annoying.  It flows from the assumption that
everybody else would see things the way I see them, naturally.

But then, he's annoying like that so I guess it makes sense that his writing
would be too.


Now, Pirsig, on the other hand, writes about himself in the third person,
while narrating from the first person:  I used to know this guy, I knew him
really well.  He's gone now, but not forgotten for he turned into me.

See, the "me" that is in the past is just as much an entity separate from
who I am now, than any other person I've read about in history books.  But
we don't think like that.  We should, but we don't.  But writing that way
sort of forces you to confront the real situation as it is, and to an
extent, by playing with the definitions of self, frees you from the
ego-attachment to your old self.

And really, when I'm writing about the guy I used to be, why should I do him
any favors?  He's certainly never done me any.  If he had any consideration
for me, he'd have dieted and exercized more and taken better care of his
body so that when it came time for me to use it, I'd be in real good shape.

On the other hand, I can't criticize him too hard because if I was in his
position, I'd probably have done the same thing.  In fact, that's what
happened.

Anyway, I wonder if any of you literary types are familiar with this
technique and know what it's called.  Lots of writers have referred to their
past in the third person, but not from the ongoing narration of the first
person.  Pirsig did it because his past person was separated from his
present person by electroshock therapy, but it doesn't take anything that
dramatic to realize the separation.  All it takes is a realization of  a
momentary separation between him and me.
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/