[MD] Platt's Individual Level

[Heather Perella]

Hey Steve and Platt,

     (My apology, when I say Pirsig when it comes to
the book, Lila, I mean Phaedrus, I correct this late
in this post.)


     Platt quoted Pirsig:  "He is just a person who is
valuing intellectual patterns that, because they are
outside the range of our own culture, we perceive to
have very low quality."

     And Platt said this says no intellectual
patterns.  Where in this sentence do you see that?  

     Let's look at this closer.

     Pirsig:  "He is just a person who is valuing
intellectual patterns..."

     Now if I cut this sentence short Pirsig is saying
he is a person valuing intellectual patterns.

     Pirsig:  "...that, because they are outside the
range of our own culture..."

      Ok, outside the range of our culture.  Yes,
there are many different cultures in the world, ok...

     Pirsig:  "...we perceive to have very low
quality."

     Since "we perceive" this person to be outside of
cultural thinking it is we that perceive the low
quality.  Yet, Pirsig was in defense of Lila stating
she had quality, which Pirsig explains basically that
quality has static and dynamic aspects.  Pirsig goes
on to say that static quality has levels for clarities
sake.  These static levels are chaos, inorganic,
organic, social, intellectual.  All four of these
levels are static quality.  Then there is the other
level or aspect known as dynamic quality.  Both static
and dynamic quality are aspects of the whole known as
quality.
     Therefore Pirsig saw quality in Lila.  Thus, Lila
had all levels, all aspects of quality.  Pirsig went
on to say that Lila was another culture.  Society is
just a bunch of biological individuals of people.  The
social/shared meanings, behaviors, beliefs, thoughts,
worldview, etc... about the world that these
populations of people just on terms of biological
individuals, their ways and sharing that provide
expectations towards each other since they live in the
same society is their culture.  Culture goes beyond
just a society of people.  Culture provides
expectations so as not to surprise anybody in the
society.  
     When Pirsig says Lila is a culture unto herself
she has expectations in her worldview.  Pirsig said do
not discount her out as somebody insane within our
culture.  Pirsig is merely going along with Ruth
Benedict, the anthropologist.  Sure in our culture
Lila was insane, but in another culture, even her
culture, Lila is totally logical and understandable. 
All one need to do is to venture, as an anthropologist
would, into her worldview.  Do the acts she does, as
Malinowski the anthropologist that made famous in the
anthropology field the saying 'off the veranda'. 
(This was one argument anthropologists had against
Margaret Mead (an anthropologist) who wrote 'Coming of
Age in Samoa'.  Anthropologist accepting at first
began to notice that Mead spent most of her time at a
local mission in Samoa and rarely went 'off the
veranda'.  She rarely went into the village and
gathered most if not all of her data from hearsay.  I
believe [not completely sure about this, but it comes
to mind as being something familiar I remember about
this] the mission was not ideally looked upon by the
villagers and thus, the reputation of the mission did
not allow a lot of truth in the first place be readily
spoken to somebody staying at the mission.)    
     In Malinowski's day, the early 1900's,
anthropology was conducted under the terms of science
that dominated at the time.  The anthropologist just
observed from a distance.  (By the way, anthropologist
used to observe so far away from villages that they
once thought, in the 1800's I believe, they found in
Africa primates with tails dancing around a fire in a
village.  Yet, this turn out to be, now I'm vague as
to what this was right now, but I think it was sticks
they were holding.  They were over a mile away
watching the villagers, gathering data.  Also, in the
American Museum of Natural History in the late 1800's
African villagers were on display in a cage for people
to come and observe.)  
     Malinowski was an anthropologist that started out
observing natives on a Pacific island from high up on
a hill that overlooked their village.  Sometimes he
came down to visit, but his work was on the veranda,
the porch of the place he stayed at.  He came out,
looked down on them, and observed them as anybody
going into a museum observes, which is at objects as
they stand and look.  Not even touching them would be
important to the museum adventure.  Then he got this
bright idea.  After visiting them a number of times,
he thought if he actually was in the village he could
learn more about them.  Then the next thought he had
was if he actually participated with some of their
activities he could learn more through their eyes.  He
named it participation observation or PO.  The
anthropologist observes, but participates to get the
flavor, the feel, and understand more through the
movements, hunts, and first-hand experience of what
the villagers also did, which their behaviors are
culturally influenced.  Society is different in
definition than culture.
     This PO approach is exactly what Pirsig said
about Lila.  Don't discount her (plastic) baby.  It is
real to Lila, make it real to you.  Get inside of her
world.  What is real to her, go along with her, and
make it real to you.  Stay observational in the sense
that you don't want to lose your world, which always
keeps Pirsig and Lila separate, but by participating
with Lila, Pirsig (I know in the book this is
Phaedrus, my apology for keep saying Pirsig) is able
to see more of her world and thus, understand more
about Lila's culture.  
     Therefore in the end, as far as this post goes,
we perceive Lila as low quality when we view her from
our culture, but if we participate with her culture,
as Phaedrus advocated, we will see the quality in Lila
(by saying quality it is correctly assumed we are
talking about all the levels and aspects of quality),
that Phaedrus was pointing out to Rigel.  Eventually
Rigel listened to Phaedrus.  Then Rigel took Lila away
from Phaedrus.  Thus, Rigel listened to Phaedrus, and
Rigel said he will take care of Lila now.  Rigel does
not dismiss himself from caring for Lila ever since
Rigel finally listened to Phaedrus as the book ends.

Lila is quality.
Lila is a culture.  Culture needs a society.  Culture
is defined differently from society.  Culture is a
concept that includes shared beliefs, values, and
norms.  Lila is normal in her culture.  Lila is
intellectual, social, biological, inorganic, chaotic,
(all the static levels), and she is dynamic quality. 
So plainly and simply - Lila is quality.  Enter
anybodies culture, using PO, know their worldview is
real to them and take it real unto yourself.  This
rids ignorance.


Thanks, 
SA
     

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