[MD] Definitions.

[Dan Glover]

Hello everyone

On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 11:50 AM, david buchanan <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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?

Dan:
Remember how Lila tells Phaedrus about 'Sad Sack'? How he was both
smart and stupid at the same time? And how Phaedrus reminds her of
him? What she is saying is that even though Phaedrus is very
intelligent in one sense he lacks something. Even though he will never
see that, she does. Now, a character like Lila may not be smart in the
bookish sense but she's been around the block and she knows which end
is up whereas a character like Phaedrus has been isolated by the very
thing that makes him unique: intellect. So does Lila understand
Phaedrus on the intellectual level? Of course not. But she does
understand him.

> 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:
I think Phaedrus makes a point that there were two ways she could have
gone: either Dynamically rise above the patterns, or to succumb to
them. It makes him sad when she does the latter. So yes, while it
might be better to give in to the church rather than dying of
alcoholism there may be a more Dynamic choice which is even better
than that.

>
> 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.

Dan:
Of course I am not suggesting that. I was merely pointing out another
way of looking at things. I apologize if I stated a fact so obvious
that it goes without saying. I didn't gather that from your post but
like you say, you didn't bother stating it. Still, if you understand
it was 'Lila' who wrote the book, why are you attacking 'her' so
vehemently?

Thank you,

Dan

http://www.danglover.com