Thought of the Day
In Z&AoMM, Pirsig is very self-centred but it is an "extraordinary story of a man's quest for truth".
I decided to make this quotation the thought of the day because it's pertinent to reading and my ambivalent relationship to reading. It's also clearly pertinent to blogging which apparently is now considered passe (don't know how to make the accent) or "so last year". That actually makes me feel more enthusiastic despite the fact that I have so little spare time right now to spend on the internet. Do I doubt the dogma of blogging and therefore feel compelled to keep supporting it? I read a newspaper article about the diminishment of blogging. The writer felt it had to do with people not having very much to say beyond what they said last year. Or that those who have things to say have tried blogging and now they're movin' on to some other form of self-expression. What would that be (clearly I'm skeptical - desperate as I am to "hang on" to blogging as a practice)?
You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it’s going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it’s always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
In Z&AoMM, Pirsig is very self-centred but it is an "extraordinary story of a man's quest for truth".
I decided to make this quotation the thought of the day because it's pertinent to reading and my ambivalent relationship to reading. It's also clearly pertinent to blogging which apparently is now considered passe (don't know how to make the accent) or "so last year". That actually makes me feel more enthusiastic despite the fact that I have so little spare time right now to spend on the internet. Do I doubt the dogma of blogging and therefore feel compelled to keep supporting it? I read a newspaper article about the diminishment of blogging. The writer felt it had to do with people not having very much to say beyond what they said last year. Or that those who have things to say have tried blogging and now they're movin' on to some other form of self-expression. What would that be (clearly I'm skeptical - desperate as I am to "hang on" to blogging as a practice)?
posted by Anne @ 11:40 AM
6 Comments:
At 9:16 PM,
Stella said…
Pirsig's religious dedication, to Phaedrus (albeit negative dedication) eventually allowed Phaedrus to be part of Pirsig's whole nature. He didn't need to believe in Phaedrus anymore or label him as insane.
There's a Monty Python skit of a guy wrestling with himself while giving heated commentary at the same time, (which looks just like vigorous hatha yoga)....it's a kinesthetic retelling of Z&AoMM but without the Harley.
At 9:16 AM,
Anne said…
Awesome! It's kinda convenient having you reading ahead of me. We'll have to try it again. Or reverse roles (tho' you'd have to read very slowly to stay behind me!). Any ideas? I'm kind of curious about all this Jasper Johns stuff you're reading. I have two books "on deck". One is another 50 center called Neoclassism, the other I got for Christmas (I think as a bit of a joke). It's called How the Scots invented the Modern World (or something like that) but (as you know) I like to deviate from the prescribed path of reading. Pixie's just read Catcher in the Rye...
At 1:39 PM,
Stella said…
I have that "How the Scots..." book here too! And it was lent to me as a bit of a joke after I found out my real mother was a Scot. I'm reading Walden because it was on Pirsig's list. And because of all the trouble he stirred up in Salinger's "Franny and Zoe". I also borrowed "Turn of the Screw" because my copy of Z&AoMM has a preamble by Pirsig about the failures of his book, one being that the narrator's perspective of Phaedrus is like the Governess's perspective of the ghost in Turn of the Screw...and that the set up is to fool the reader into believing the testimony of a corrupt narrator. So I read Z&AoMM with this caution.
I'd really like to hear your take on the JJ material! I think I came into art with Jasper Johns as a given, as if art was about saying "Complete this sentence: Culture runs interference, so..."
At 8:38 AM,
Anne said…
Necessity dictates an immediate reading of King Lear and Antigone. So if you're game...here we go!
At 10:25 PM,
Stella said…
Will reserve them right away.
I'm positively certain to lag way behind you in this round.
Totally off topic...just finished listening to Oliver Sacks's reading of The man who mistook his wife for a hat. Loved it.
At 3:39 PM,
Stella said…
I've just brought home my copy of Antigone with notes by Andrew Brown. Here's an excerpt from the introduction:
"Sophocles is the second of the three Greek tragedians whose work survives. His extraordinary long and productive career ran from 468, when the first of his great rivals, Aeschylus, still had over ten years to live, to his death in 406 when his second great rival, Euripedes, was already dead."
And as I flip through I see someone's gone in with pen and noted all the lines with the words die, death or dead in them.
I don't like this copy. I think I'll see if there's another Antigone.
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