[MD] The Menu/Reality issue

[Steve Peterson]

>

Hi Bo,

Long time no see. I hope you are well.

> The menu/food analogy is a variant of the map/terrain one. On page
> 103 in LILA Pirsig takes the metaphysic=map as granted and just
> speaks about the the SOM map and the MOQ map as different
> projections (the earth is round and no flat map can fully represent it
> beyond a certain scale)

I agree.

> And yet Ian, this is SOM or intellect. Objectivity (knowledge) vs
> Subjective (mind-games). The preceding social level had no such
> distinction (I won't start on that again) nor does the MOQ  
> subscribe to
> the S/O, but have relegated it the role of its highest static. Now,  
> the
> static realm is the place to be if only understood in the MOQ sense,
> but for the time being we circle aimlessly around in some no-man's-
> land between SOM (intellect) and the MOQ (as intellect too).


In Pirsig's MOQ, SOM and the the MOQ itself are menus not food or  
maps not terrain. We don't need to circle around aimlessly, we can  
choose the map we prefer.

> I think the map/terrain or "understood/presumed reality"  analogy is
> misleading. Quality isn't the terrain with the MOQ a map -  this is
> merely more SOM.

The distinction is between experience and two different intellectual  
descriptions of experience. Your menu/food confusion is due to the  
fact that you do not view the MOQ as the MOQ describes itself, as an  
intellectual pattern.

Best,
Steve