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

[Dan Glover]

Hello everyone

>From: "Michael Hamilton" <thethemichael at gmail.com>
>Reply-To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
>To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
>Subject: Re: [MD] 1961 Paper - "Quality in Freshman Writing"
>Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 01:56:34 +0000
>
>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.

This is the quote that I am referring to:

"...at one time it looked as though the whole book would center around this 
long night's meeting of the Native American Church. The ceremony would be a 
kind of spine to hold it all together. From it he would branch out and show 
in tangent after tangent the analysis of complex realities and 
transcendental questions that first emerged in his mind there." (LILA)

But yes, I agree that it seems as if he's still revisiting and re-evaluting 
his experience.

>
> > >
> > >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 think Phaedrus calls it "plains spoken".

>
> > >
> > >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.

That works, sure.

>
> > 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.

It might make some of them question their teaching methods.

>
> > Don't be a stranger.
>
>Thankyou for not treating me like one!

You're welcome.

Dan