[MD] question: MOQ, Pirsigism, passionate emotion

[Michael R. Brown]

Hello all -

I've been on the list before, then left, now returned.

I've been reading Bob Pirsig's writing regularly since the mid-1980s, and 
remain deeply intrigued by him - first as a literary artisan (for which he's 
not received enough credit) and then as a philosopher. I do think that he 
has lit on some insights of huge importance, and expressed them in the way 
they needed to be expressed.

But here's something that I have been unable to resolve, so I throw it out 
here for what it's worth.

Almost every discussion of Pirsig, the totality of his thought, and the MOQ 
(all three of which are separate) that I've seen eventually resemble the 
Church of Reason intellectualizing criticized so adeptly in ZAMM.

And what I have not yet seen, ever, is an expression of passionate emotion. 
There's obviously passionate emotion in ZAMM, and I've always been grateful 
that RP touches sexuality in L - so where's the expression of this passion 
in those who have been influenced by him? Am I missing it? What's the 
subjective importance of this writer to those who love him?

[ For those who are interested in RP's possible literary children, I worked 
in a commentary and tribute to the closing of ZAMM - which I think one of 
the most moving things I've ever read - in my last book, a memoir that 
closes on the opposite shore of the great Bridge that our protagonists are 
approaching as the book ends. ]


MRB