RIP Robert Pirsig

[lotusamerica]

You might remember him as that guy who wrote the unreadable book with the awesome title. I mean "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," pretty damn cool and unforgettable once it's in your brain, even if it never made much sense when you tried to pull it apart. I'll remember him as the guy who followed up that difficult but brilliant book with a book that was its opposite but even more satisfying. Zen had an amazing story - man wakes up inside a body he is unsure is his and a mind he doesn't recognize at all - only to discover that "he is me" after far too much disengaged and disembodied analysis for a mortal man to bear - lots of satisfying bites that resulted in an incoherent, unsatisfying meal. Great in portions but not a cohesive whole. I'll remember him as the guy who followed that up with a second book that told an unsatisfying, mundane story about middle aged people who never amounted to much, with the authors escape into his mind from this dreadful exterior world producing one of the more satisfying explanations of life that philosophy has produced in some time. I don't agree with various aspects of his musings, but without his second book I would chalk his life up to a flash in the cultural pan of notoriety. "Lila" laid a foundation that guided a crucial decade of my life, and now with Pirsig's death I guess it will be time to reread both of these works to see how they hold up some decades later. The scorn heaped on both of them in the academic world was replaced by silent indifference long ago, and I look forward to the journey of rediscovering, whatever the outcome.

[RolanK]

Read Zen back in the days in my "formative years" as a reader. Enjoyed it very much and it also made quite an impression. Never got around to check out any of his other work, though. Perhaps it is time to catch up as well as re-read Zen.

[Tequila Cowboy]

I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance several times in my teens and twenties and it made an impression on me as well. RIP Mr. Pirsig.

[Beaverdam]

I've read Zen several times and Lila as well. I thought Zen was a great book. My favorite teacher in high school, David Zuniga, introduced me in a Creative Writing/Novels course.

Questioning the meaning of "quality" was I believe one of the book's central themes.