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Jo posted on May 03, 2010 13:08
I must admit that since the excitement has worn off and the reading has began, I'm really nervous about this challenge. Each time I flip through the pages of GITK I can't help but ask myself what I was thinking. The titles of the chapters in Part Two are intimidating! Add to that how many wonderful members will be reading along to see if I "get it".... oh my!
The Basics of this Blog
I can promise I will be shooting straight from the hip with this blog.
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The Challenge Begins
With all of that being said, I want to start by looking at this book as a work of fiction. Having met Michael and having heard Steve tell stories about Michael over the years, I feel like I know him. I want to banish the Michael of 2010 from my mind and come from the point of view of someone just reading Michael's story. It's going to be hard to do!
Who was Shivas Irons?
I think this is a question I'll be asking often, especially through the first part of this book.
Like most of us these days when we want or need information, I Googled and came across this Charlie Rose interview with Micheal from February 1998 where he talks about his books.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/5108
Michael tells Charlie Rose that Shivas was based on two indiviuals he knew, but isn't very forthcoming beyond that.
In the book, Michael describes Shivas Irons as a golf professional who performs some spectacular feats. I found Michael's conversation with the friendly, neighborhood bartender to be the best characterization for the moment.
"A little off", Shivas seemed to like the ladies and the ladies liked Shivas. Could that have had something to do with why he disappeared? Was Shivas Irons a player caught with his hand in too many cookie jars? Dare I even make the comparison that comes to mind? Nah, no philosophical sexting for Shivas.
In my experience, vastly creative people can seem a bit "off" but given the chance can leave a big impression, which Shivas obviously did. The question is what was it about Shivas Irons that affected so many people?
Jo's Summary
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*SIDE NOTE: As the movie GITK approaches, I found it interesting that Elvis debuted on the Ed Sullivan show in September 1956. If movie lore holds true, then Elvis spent some time with Forest, Forest Gump just a few short months before that tv performance. That would have been about the time Michael met Shivas. Elvis & Forest, Michael & Shivas... movie magic! ;)
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Thus far I've learned that Michael was on a spiritual journey to India in June of 1956. He had a layover in the Kingdom of Fife and decided to play a round. He met Shivas Irons, a golf pro who enlightened and influenced his life.
Michael spent the next 15 years in a "social movement" that would make this little country girl blush. But, the meeting with Shivas haunts Michael and he tries to contact him only to find the mystic has disappeared.
Not alot of meat in the first chapter, just background noise that will probably be useful the further along we get.
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On Wednesday, May 5th, I will continue the journey with Part One: Golf in the Kingdom. I hope you'll continue the journey with me and please tell me if I missed something important in chapter 1.
~Heading into the Kingdom,
Jo
Monday, May 03, 2010 6:20 PM
Jo, What fun to experience this for the first time after getting to know so many who have been influenced by Shivas. It is too bad that you found Charlie Rose's interview with Michael wherein Michael was actually far more "forthcoming" than he had been before. If I could suggest anything, I would ask you to suspend disbelief and forget Michael's comment. You should really read the book believing in the experiences and not with an eye for literary devices or the usual deconstruction of fictive writing. Just as the first impression of Carlos Castenada books about Don Juan is more entertaining if you don't know that he made it all up out of whole cloth. Enjoy. Gerry
Monday, May 03, 2010 10:17 PM
Jo, As someone who has always loved books but came late to the game of golf and its literature I can understand some of your trepidation towards GITK. I cannot imagine the intimidation of knowing the author and so many GITK devotees! I wish you luck in your endeavor. I came to appreciate GITK and developed an interest in the Society only after reading another book "In Search of Burningbush"" which I found to be delightful and it inspired me to reread GITK and search out the Society online. GITK dare I say is a strange and difficult book. I'm very interested in your non-golfer perspective. It certainly is an illuminating work and justly deserves a high place in the literature of golf yet many golfers I know have either never heard of it or have been put off by it. So I think it is a rather narrow (albeit select) audience that appreciates it. I'm going to attempt to reread it along with you and I hope we both, along with the others who will be posting can learn from each other. I am sure there is much I can learn from this process! I should add by way of background note that to my knowledge I have never met a Society member so my knowledge of the group that was built out of a devotion to this work is purely cursory, what I have picked up throug the web site mainly. I have some formal training in theology but am probably best describes as agnostic at this point in my life, I somewhat tongue in cheekly will sometimes refer to myself as a "Zen Druid". I do hava alove for the spiritual qualities in golf and of course that leads me to GITK. Ok here we go! Blog on Jo, I will be following. -Mark
Tuesday, May 04, 2010 4:51 AM
Jo, Right from the start everything is enigmatic. The original meeting with Shivas is in 1956. In 1956 The Kingdom of Fife, Scotland was not resonating with spiritual vibes! The linksland area in this neck of the woods was and still is enchanting but New Age it was not. It was wonderful that Michael Murphy had the writing gifts to be able to create the initial connections with Shivas in this context. Michael does not return to the scene until 1971 and mentions the "Summer of Love" happening in 1967. Now let me tell you, Jo, Flower Power and "Love is all you Need" didn't turn up in Dundee, across the water frae Fife, until 1968 - and that was only because Ian McGregor and my good self had the courage and temerity to wear flowers in our hair (a la San Francisco) and parade thru Broughty Ferry a few miles south of Carnoustie. This took great courage and derision was heaped upon us! We were weeded out, or not as was actually the case! Michaels chat with Liston proceeds and is lubricated with whisky and this simply leads to more enigmatic statements regarding Shivas's way with the ladies, silver tongued devil that he seems to be. There is also, I think, an illusion to Ben Hogan in so far as Shivas's practice regime is reminiscent of the "wee ice mon's" approach to this discipline; again just acoss the water at Panmure Golf Club prior to his victory ay Carnoustie. I think there is stuff being hinted at here that only M.M. only can really elucidate. At any rate the tone is set and even the origin of Shivas's moniker is shrouded in a veil of Scotttish mist and , probably, malt whisky vapours!! Read on Jo and don't pay to much attention to the rantings of a woebegone Scotsman from the banks of the River Tay.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010 3:00 PM
Having played golf all over Scotland and drank too many drams of Scotch Whiskey as did Michael Murphy, I believe he borrowed part of Shivas Irons name from Shivas Regal, the famous Scotch Whiskey. Now I can fully understand this and it could have come from playing golf in the cold and rainy weather in Scotland, thus "shivering irons" becomes Shivas Irons. More later after a few drams of Shivas Regal! Jerry Hitzhusen
Tuesday, May 04, 2010 4:47 PM
A oftimes suggested and certainly pleasant thought, Jerry, however I tend to doubt the connection. The Whiskey's name is actually spelled Chivas Regal and although based on s Speyside malt produced in Strathisla it is a blended whiskey and not a single malt. I might suggest the more likely derivation (if we are to consider that the name is invented and the man did not actually live (bite my tongue)) : Shiva which is a Sanskrit word for Auspicious one denotes an aspect of the three forms system of Hinduism (Trimurti). Together with Brahma (the creator) and Vishnu (the sustainer), Shiva (the transformer) is central to the Kurma Purana. Some versions of Hinduism reject the trinity-like concept and instead hold one or the other of these aspects as the supreme being, and thus Saivism holds Shiva to be supreme, and for some he is the one in whom all things will dissolve when the created universe collapses. Let us remember where Michael was going when he stopped off in the Kingdom.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010 5:01 PM
I think its a fine idea to pass a bottle of Chivas Regal around as we read! ;) With that and all of your cheering me on, I know I'll make it to the end. As for where the name came from, Michael includes (in the 25th anniversary edition of the book at least) a footnote dedicated to his name at the end of the first chapter. He mentions Chivas Regal in fact! But he says that to his vast disappointment he could find no connection to Shiva. He does break down the names and details his research into the name Shivas Irons. Michael goes on to quote Thomas Carlyle who said "...what mystic influence does it not send inwards, even to the centre; especially in those plastic first-times, when the whole soul is yet infantine, soft, and the invisible seedgrain will grow to be an all overshadowing tree!" Michael then added... "A name can shape a life, and if his soul took birth to do the work I found him doin, how well his parents sensed it and named him for the task." Love it!
Wednesday, May 05, 2010 6:01 PM
I believe that the footnotes came later (at least there are none in my Penguin Arkana editions), but note that the one you have quoted implies that he is wondering about what inspired Shivas' parents to name him thus. Which perpetuates the integrity of the story on its face. Namely (to pun) that Shivas is a real character that Michael met in Scotland. His discounting of discovered connections to Shiva is fine in that context, however it certainly does not eliminate the influence if the character is in fact invented by Murphy. This is the dichotomy that I suggested you set aside by just accepting the story as it is presented. Once you have read it through then you might consider the possibility of invention and maybe (like many of us) decide to have it both ways as we do with even older Testaments.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010 10:00 PM
Jo, As Gerald intimated on Tuesday Shivas in Sanskrit means "auspicious". This I did not know. You have made an auspicious beginning in your blog and that bodes well. Gerald also counsels you to read the book "believing in the experiences and not with an eye for literary devices" and "accept(ing) the story as it is presented". This is great advice in my opinion and I would add, 'umbly, that you do not try to read it too quickly. I don't think it matters if you miss a "deadline" or two as you may find that it is nice to allow things to sink in, to ferment in your grey matter. It also may give us ardent followers a chance to keep up with you! Gerald also mentions rejection of a "trinity-like concept" with regards to the three Hindu deities Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. I wonder if M.M., subconciously, had The Great Triumvirate Vardon, Taylor and Braid swirling through his mind. Poetic licence or just a flight of fancy in this Scotsman's whisky addled mind!
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