[MD] Definitions.

[david buchanan]

Dan said to dmb:
I think this goes a little deeper, Dave. Remember, Lila IS the author. I asked Mr Pirsig about this once: RMP said, "No Rigel is just me, setting the stage for the MOQ. I tried to think of the best attack I could make and then put it in his mouth. One interviewer asked me, “Are you really Phædrus?” The answer was, “Yes I really am Phædrus. I also really am Richard Rigel. I also really am
Lila. I also really am the boat.” What this says to me is, Robert Pirsig is (in a way) projecting himself into these characters to a) illuminate the differences between the biological (Lila) the social (Rigel) and the intellectual (Phaedrus) levels and b) to create a kind of tension in the narrative which helps the story along.


dmb says:
Well, that's true Dan but how is that "deeper"? 

Dan continued:
Lila is portrayed in the way she is to help flesh out the characteristics of someone caught in a biological web of love, hatred, jealousy, envy, lust, etc. She attacks Phaedrus and his 'intellect' not because she doesn't understand it, but because she understands it all too well.


dmb says:
Understands all too well? I think that's obviously not true, Dan. It would be inconsistent with the wider picture of static values as a hierarchy of levels. How could she understand intellect "all too well" if she is "intellectually nowhere"? That's her role in the book, right? Her chances of escaping insanity or death are probably best with Rigel because she has to start healing from the place where she is, so to speak, developmentally. She's going to need some social values first then maybe she could move on to intellect. You know, joining a church is better than dying of alcoholism.

DAN said:
Still, on a deeper level, Robert Pirsig really IS all these characters, as well as the boat, the Hudson river, the ocean itself.

dmb says:
I don't get it. Are you suggesting that I don't know who wrote Lila? How is it "deeper" to acknowledge this obvious fact? I think it's just so obvious that it goes without saying. So I didn't bother.