[MD] 1961 Paper - "Quality in Freshman Writing"

[Michael Hamilton]

Hello Dan, and thanks for your message,

> Thank you for bringing the matter up. It is a good paper. I enjoyed reading
> it.

Me too. Pirsig's writing is clear and direct as always.

> >
> >I'd been wondering if this piece would show some kind of different
> >perspective from ZMM and Lila - after all, this is the first thing
> >we've seen written by the "Phaedrus" of ZMM, before
> >insanity/enlightenment and the electrodes... but on first reading,
> >this doesn't seem to be the case. The crucial passage from ZMM about
> >the "many marvellous analogues" etc is there just the same. This whole
> >part of ZMM about teaching quality and the subsequent waves of
> >crystallisation was always the part that blew me away, so it's useful
> >to have it against in a slightly different and more self-contained
> >form.
>
> I've always been under the impression that the MOQ crystalized in Robert
> Pirsig's mind at the peyote meeting so it's interesting to read another
> perspective.

Judging from the recent interview (which also made for excellent,
illuminating reading) Pirsig had taken peyote before the electrodes
were attached. But it also seems that in the process of writing Lila
he was still revisiting and re-evaluating his experience. I don't have
a copy to hand so I'm going on vague memory for now.

> >
> >Anyway, I hadn't asked to see this paper with the intention of prying
> >into the development of Phaedrus's psyche or whatever... I asked to
> >see it because I'm now a university first-year, and struggling to
> >write. Academic essays, though. Not creative composition. But perhaps
> >the difference between the two isn't so great. If rotisserie assemply
> >is a form of sculpture, then writing an essay is easily a form of
> >creative composition. There's no single way of doing it, it's a craft.
>
> Like any worthwhile endeavor, to write well requires a great deal of work. I
> think the key is to make it look easy. To do that, a writer has to express
> something with every word. Otherwise the reader knows the writer just
> doesn't care. At least this reader feels that way.

"Express something with every word"... yes, that strikes me as good
advice. For a reader, it gives the feeling that he's being spoken to
directly, as if the writer was just across the table, rather than
merely typing into Microsoft Word with a deadline to meet. That's
pretty much what I get from Pirsig's writing style, whether it's ZMM,
Lila or this 1961 paper.

> >
> >I've written lots of essays before, but I've always been uneasy with
> >the process of writing, and it was getting more and more tortuous. To
> >be honest, even writing this involves annoying levels of
> >self-criticism, rather than being a simple, honest flow of
> >consciousness. This is a big gumption trap, no doubt about it. Or
> >perhaps it stems from a lack of gumption at the outset. Dunno.
>
> A spark of interest and some kindling of thought is a good start. I know
> from the start that most everything I write is trash. If anyone let that
> stop them, there would be no writers at all. Even the greatest writers have
> written just horrible junk.

I've got the spark and the kindling, in all modesty. I love the course
and the material I'm studying. To stick with the metaphor, what I'm
lacking is the persistence and the gumption to keep blowing on that
fire, to give it the oxygen it needs. Without that, all that thought
and interest never gets onto the page. For now, it might help to think
of Microsoft Word as my trash basket and junkpile.

> Still, there's all kinds of gumption traps a person can fall into. Reading
> has worked to spark my writings at those times.

Reading is wonderful.

> >
> >One thing I am sure of: education would be a much better experience
> >for everyone if all teachers (at any level) read this paper.
>
> Why not share it with them? Or is that something "that isn't done"?

Yep, generally, it isn't done. But I wasn't moaning about my current
teachers - they seem to understand this stuff. I was more thinking of
teachers back at secondary school and college. Maybe I should sneakily
pin up some sections from this paper near the staff rooms  there. This
might be a cowardly way of doing it, but I would feel uneasy about
telling my old teachers that they weren't teaching quality. I hate
confrontation.

> Don't be a stranger.

Thankyou for not treating me like one!

Mike