[MD] New ZMM Radio Play

[Ant McWatt]

Ian G said July 2nd 2012:

Hi Ant, 

I thought given the tricks they had to play to get it all in without literally going through the original narrative sequentially,
it came across very well.  Blogged a brief review last weekend.

http://www.psybertron.org/?p=569<

[It states at the above link:] 

"The characterizations, tone and atmosphere were dead right, and despite 
the need for selective editing to fit the 90 minute format, all the main
 aspects of the narrative, the back-stories and the underlying 
chautauqua on quality and mental illness came through. Many original 
scenes re-ordered and combined, and some dialogue recalled in the mouths
 of others, to get all the ideas and the marquee quotes in, without 
losing the context or intent, and still maintaining the overall sequence
 of the journey. An excellent production."


Ant McWatt comments:

Ian, 

Thanks for that.  I agree with most of your review though I'm not too sure ALL the "marquee quotes" are there!  

For instance:

"You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely
different from any other. In a car you're always in a compartment, and
because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window
everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all
moving by you boringly in a frame."

I read this quote (which appears very early in ZMM) as a metaphor of the SOM viewpoint (being a separate passive observer of the world - the car passenger) as compared to the Zen viewpoint (being a Dynamic agent in the world - the motorcycle rider).  It's gently introducing to the reader the difference between where Western culture is at and - with a little Zen help from its friends - where it could be.


This sentiment is then reinforced (about three pages later) by this other "marquee quote":
 

"'It was all those people in the cars coming the other way,'
[Sylvia] says. 'The

first one looked so sad. And then the next one looked
exactly the same way,

and then the next one and the next one, they were all the
same...'

'They looked so lost,' she says. 'Like
they were all dead. Like a

funeral procession.'"
Now this whole quote (a metaphor for SOM alienation) is reduced down to just one line in the play which means its significance is rather lost especially without the preceding "car window" quote which sets the scene.
Yours (rather) fussily,
Ant


Ant McWatt asked July 2nd 2012:

> I've been listening to the new ZMM radio play by BBC Radio   over the week.  What did everyone think?
>
> Having seen the script a week or two before broadcast, I thought the play came over better than I
> thought it would.  I still don't like way the descriptive paragraphs were rewritten because Pirsig's 
> narrative in ZMM was very carefully honed over five years (a Murry Wilson "Don't forget Brian/Bob, 
> I'm a genius too" moment!) but I did like the addition of the Chairman addressing Phaedrus as "Mr 
> Quality".  A nice, > slightly chilling, touch.  Moreover, the actors played the lines well though 
> (being strictly limited to ZMM), no MOQ of course.


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