[MD] re, mary, platt

[X Acto]

----- Original Message ----
From: ARLO J BENSINGER JR <ajb102 at psu.edu>
To: moq_discuss at lists.moqtalk.org
Sent: Sat, July 24, 2010 3:19:23 PM
Subject: Re: [MD] re, mary, platt

[Platt to Mary]
... I 've always thought it close to the height of absurdity to declare that
the man whose ideas we're here to discuss was so pigheaded he could never,
under any circumstances, have second thoughts about his previously stated
opinions.

[Arlo]

And now the focus on interpretative legitmacy has devolved to claims about who
speaks for Pirsig's pre-hospitalized self? You are right, no wonder why Pirsig
and Ant don't bother themselves with the list. I'm very close to thinking the
same way. (And yes, I heard Platt, Mary and Bo clap their hands when I said
that.) 


Ron:
The "pre-hospitalized" arguement is null and void.Pirsig wrote both books
after the said "hospitalization" His 1961 paper on the expansion of quality
in writing, the paper that started all of it and the one his entire work is 
based
on and is consistant with, well before said "hospitalization". In which he has
his class define what "good" writing is and grade themselves accordingly.
He turned "quality" into "inquirey", he had the class examine what the common
qualities of what they themselves valued as "good".
Instead of trying to conform to an absolute authority, which was failing to 
produce
good writing, he asked them to explore their own sense of value of what "good"
means.