AUGUST BOOK CLUB: Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals (Patreon)

Welcome back. Let's get it.

We're starting Lila now and checking in four times this month on this schedule:

Wed. Aug 10th: Chapters 1-8 (Longer)

Wed. Aug 17th: Chapters 9-15 (Shorter)

Wed. Aug 24th: (Part 2) Chapter 16 - 23 (Shorter)

Wed. Aug 31st: (Part 3) Chapter 23 - 32 (Longer)

Read at whatever pace you must, check in whenever you're there. I will be watching all of the threads (including ZMM Parts 1-4). 

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This book is a sequel to Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and I will of my own accord declare that yes, you should read Zen before you read Lila.

The philosophy in Zen organically springs into Lila, and you have to buy into the fundamental proposition of Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality in order to reckon with his theoretical all encompassing expansion of it.

In addition to this... Lila is.... worse? Lmao.

Pirsig has expressed in interviews he is disappointed Lila didn't take off into the public consciousness like ZMM did, and my opinion is: it makes a lot of sense that it did not.

ZMM is a well constructed narrative as a classically compelling story about a father and son trying to connect, as well as a very accessible guided thought process through technology and art and Da Modern Era. It also has the heavy weight of being largely autobiographical.

Lila is decidedly not autobiographical. Yes, Pirsig did buy a boat and go on sailing trips, but no, he did not sail across America with a woman he picked up at a bar.

There are lots of autobiographical elements within it, but fundamentally it is fiction. And also, it's provocative to... mixed results.

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Content Warning 1: Throughout this book Pirsig writes the titular character as a, mentally ill, short tempered, "past-her-prime" promiscuous woman. It doesn't always feel good. Very man-writing-woman, sometimes just feels disrespectful. 

Content Warning 2: And, at the beginning of Part 2 (Ch.16) he starts writing from the perspective of a black New York gangster and just BARRELS into ebonics (RIP)

I do not like these elements. 

I think the first book is like, basically completely unproblematic because the character and perspective and time period seem to accommodate the moral failings represented. However in this book, idk. I've studied it and the context a lot so I know that Pirsig isn't like a capital M misogynist or capital R racist, I can compute the intentions of these elements but they really drag in a modern reading, or they at least do for me and I imagine they will for a bunch of you. 

I do believe these elements are intended to highlight areas of grey morality, and perhaps some ethical dilemmas he's experienced in his lifetime. I don't find them sinister. Just low quality object-subject interaction..

You're gonna have to read this with some forgiveness and curiosity, I don't want the discussion threads to be mired with YourFavIsProblematic interpretations exclusively. The prose and philosophy and many pieces of this book are extremely profound. We're gonna try to extract those elements for all they're worth.

I suggest if you need to let out some This Is Problematic Bloodletting, do it in a paragraph. Try not to let it consume your read. I get it, it's there, but if you've ever read a slightly older problematic book you know u gotta accept some realities, especially amongst a group that already agrees with your general reactions.

One more thing, much less #problematic:

Content Warning 3: Mental illness and insanity is a major theme of this book, and has been of Pirsig's life. He has a mixed perspective on it, having been locked in a psych ward before, having literally aimed a gun at someone in a manic state before (he never revealed details). So. Obviously he had serious mental health issues. But he also recognizes his realization of Quality as coincidental to that diagnosis. In his own words:

"It was a separation. This is described in the psychiatric canon as catatonic schizophrenia. It is cited in the Zen Buddhist canon as hard enlightenment. I have never insisted on either - in fact I switch back and forth depending on who I am talking to." (Pirsig Interview, The Guardian 2006)

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To let you behind the veil a bit, the Metaphysics of Quality is essential to the philosophy I want to give to the world. Much aesthetic philosophy is concerned with isolating "aesthetics" from other kinds of value or meaning or domains, and I appreciate these studies (I am doing these studies) but I am deeply convicted that aesthetics/beauty is very connected to the rest of life, to meaning. Quality is the metaphysical theoretical concept that really really supports this connection. There's a lot more work to do, I hope you can see I am working extremely hard to flesh this out and pursue every lead. This one is just heavy and I wanted to give it it's full due, with as much respect to the source materials as could be given. Thanks for doing it with me.  I don't swear by the MOQ or Pirsig, but I'll be damed if I don't fucking agree with him more than I agree with anyone else on the fundamental nature of reality.

Your mileage may vary with how much value you get from Pirsig, or me, for that matter. But the fact that you're here makes me think you value what I think, at least on some level. So I implore you, if you are to engage, to engage whole heartedly and take everything you can get, give me what I'm missing with my own limited set of analogues and interpretations. That's what this study is for. 

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Okay. Happy reading. Let's fucking go.