Good to have you back Sevilla. It seems to me there are both channels too deep and that the banks have also been overflowed. This is the unique dilemma of our time I think.
Looking forward to your new commentary. I've read ZAMM at least 6 times through my life, and I'm currently reading Lila for the 3rd time. In Lila, Pirsig develops his ideas on Quality, proposing static Quality and Dynamic Quality, and says we need both. One ray of hope in the crisis of diminishing attention spans is the growing popularity (among some) of long form discussion videos on RU-vid, by extremely smart people. There are somer deep thinkers left. I confess I have exploited people's short attention span by making my channel almost exclusively shorts (less than 60 seconds) and it is proving successful, in number terms anyway. Best wishes in your endevours from the UK. x
We have redwing blackbirds in coastal Georgia and I see them daily along the tidal lagoon on my street. I am beginning the year with four books by Teilhard de Chardin. A lucky convergence for me with Persig, I think. I will be tracking with you better this time,.
People read ZAMM without critical analysis and skepticism all too often. They think something along the lines of "Oh I've heard great things about this book so I should read it" and lap up what he says as if it holds some spiritual truths.....meanwhile they overlook or ignore the parts that are purely his subjectivity, biases and prejudices. There was one passage where he's on a bridge watching commuters drive under it and his sense of superiority is on full display. He describes all sorts of attributes to the commuters below as if he KNOWS 100% what they're thinking and feeling.....and everything he applies is negative. He cannot know what anyone else is thinking or feeling. These are clearly his own delusions and projections but he doesn't even acknowledge it and simply acts as if they're truth. Then he brings in his piety, superiority complex and arrogance to talk about how he's better than them, detached from them and more evolved than them. Every. Single. One. OF. THEM!! No exceptions. This was one of the glaring things that stood out to me when I read it 40 years ago and I was stunned that no one really discussed this shit in the years since because all too often they're still too hypnotized by the romance of it all. Look I've ridden motorcycles for around 22 years now and the number of people that bring up this idiotic book is amazing - and exactly NONE OF THEM RIDE. Put down the book, hop on a bike and ride.
Many people I've spoken with about this book ride. I get the book itself isn't for everyone. I've gotten similar feedback from others...but it's the book for me!
bravo..great insights..i had to look up sloughs, wetlands teeming with wildlife..i like that next sentence..'You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other..' a continuum has no definite beginning or end, and any point within it can be considered related to its neighbors..More broadly, a continuum can represent a spectrum of viewpoints or interpretations. In this case, "benign continuum" might relate to the idea that seemingly "good" or positive concepts can have nuanced interpretations and potentially negative consequences under specific circumstances. It encourages critical thinking and questioning accepted norms..i have to ask the Gemini AI to explain to my wee mind..
Thanks! Adding anything to the portions you read out seems pointless. Pirsig connects and leaves the reader thoughtful with a potential for gumption. May he seep into more and more of things!
