[MD] Julian Baggini interview

[Squonkonguitar at aol.com]

Mark 4-11-06: Hello Glenn.
I continue to be concerned about the private nature of these posts.
I shall continue for now, but i should like to ask you if you would be  
agreeable to have me place this train of Baggini correspondence on the MD forum  
please?
As i have been responding to your posts, i feel i share responsibility for  
respecting your wishes should you not want them public.
I'm not threatening you Glenn, i just want to be transparent that's  all.
In a sense this may to your advantage, because i am obliged to answer  public 
questions.
I hope you find this acceptable and understand my wish to be open?
I will honour your decision.
 
Hi Mark,
> I asked Baggini if a transcript of the interview
>  existed because Anthony had 
> stated that one didn't 'really'  exist.

I think I understand your motivation now. So Anthony
said this  to you privately, and then later, on MD,
he's able to somehow produce a link  to the transcript?
 
Mark 4-11-06: I used the following in a recent response to someone  else:
"Mark 2-11-06: I wanted to read the interview so i went to MOQ.org
The link there requires a subscription in order to access the TPM archives,  
and i thought that was a bit off.
I reasoned, 'Hey, Horse would have the interview on his site if it was  
available, but it isn't, so it can't be available.'
So i went to robertpirsig.org and there was no sign of the interview there  
at all.
Silly me didn't think to try a Google search, because i reasoned, 'Hey,  
Anthony would have the interview on his site if it was available, but it isn't,  
so it can't be available.'
I know!
I'm a dick head like that.
With mounting annoyance i wrote to Julian Baggini himself and asked if he  
would be so kind as to allow us to see the interview for free?
To my astonishment, i am told the transcript was given to Dr. McWatt ages  
ago for the express purpose of placement on robertpirsig.org.
Funny?
So, i ask why it isn't were it should be, and i'm told:
1. It doesn't exist.
2. It doesn't exist, but if it did exist, (which it doesn't) then a summery  
can be found on robertpirsig.org.
3. The Summery was compiled from material that was given to Baggini for his  
interview (which doesn't exist - although if it did exist then apparently  
some sort of temporal shifting is involved which allows Baggini to ask questions  
to 'answers' he hasn't seen yet, which are then removed before  summation)."
 
Mark 4-11-06: There was no private correspondence with Anthony. It's all on  
the MD forum which you may easily access at openSubscriber.com
What you see there is what there is.


And this business about a 'full transcript' vs the
'regular  transcript'. Is this your way of trying to
understand or parse what Anthony  means by 'really', to
try to tell if you actually caught him in a lie or  if
it's just a case of semantics? Or something like that?
 
Mark 4-11-06: I now have the transcript provided by Julian Baggini. I  didn't 
ask for it, Julian simply included it as an attachment in his e-mail  
response to my question of whether the transcript existed. I don't understand  why 
this wasn't simply reproduced on robertpirsig.org with maybe an image of the  
appropriate TPM cover and an intro to inform every one of the event. Job  done.
If you read the MD posts (on openSubscriber.com) i think your questions  will 
be answered - There aren't many of them and they begin only a few days  ago 
(from the date of this e-mail).
Anthony provides there his reasons for compiling a, 'summery,' essay  or 
paper from the Baggini/Pirsig correspondence.
I don't appreciate his reasoning because of issues relating to editorial  
control. As i pointed out to Anthony, the Baggini interview is approximately  
three times longer than the 'summery.'
I don't see any reason to edit the Baggini interview at all.
For me, 'full transcript' equals, 'unedited.' I don't know what, 'regular  
transcript' means.

One more thing, if you don't mind. What sparked  all
this? I mean, the interview is year old news and out
of nowhere you  come at it like a bull in a china
closet. It seemed to me and I think others,  including
Ant, that Ian wound you up over this but apparently
this is not  the case?

Thanks.
Glenn
 
Mark 4-11-06: If anything wound me up, it was my own foolishness for  
thinking i could trust robertpirsig.com
What sparked it was my spouting, (incorrectly as it turned out), to fellow  
students in the company of tutors in the philosophy department of the 
University  of Liverpool that Robert Pirsig had been interviewed for TPM. The MOQ needs 
 exposure and i feel TPM article is a measure of growing acceptance. After 
all,  TPM doesn't include any old shit! If you get in TPM you have at least been 
taken  seriously.
I thought that would help me, because if TPM takes the MoQ seriously, then  
my interest in it would be taken a little more seriously also.
I was asked where the interview could be read, and i rather foolishly  
directed attention to robertpirsig.org.
Questions then needed to be asked and i asked them.
 
Love,
Mark