R.I.P. Robert Pirsig

[guzzigary]

Robert Pirsig,88, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

[czakky]

Wow, I recently googled him to find out he was still alive. I read "Zen" when I was in high school and again about ten years ago. Both times I came away with a different reception. I still feel like the book is a little like Thelonious Monk or Captain Beefheart. I want to like it but I must not be grasping it 100% at the end of the day....

[Chuck]

Thelonious (my old friend) is the man. 

Oh, sorry, Robert. No disrespect intended whatsoever. RIP.

[docc]

Dang, time to pull out my dog-eared copy and give it another go. Like Czakky, still trying to figure a little more out . . . ethereal thanks go out to RP for trying to help out with that . . .

 

"And what is good, Phædrus, And what is not good - Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"     Pirsig

[gstallons]

One of my Top 10 reads of all time .

[Scud]

I read it a very long time ago. I think it's a great title with an acceptable book. Like Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, it could have been so much better if a good editor would have cut it by 30 percent.

 

I might be open to a re-read.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jazzamoto]

Thelonious (my old friend) is the man. 

Oh, sorry, Robert. No disrespect intended whatsoever. RIP.

I'm with you Chuck. For my memorial service (not anytime soon, I hope) I've specified Monk solo piano "Nice work if you can get it"! I get Monk ear worms almost every day. Wonderful disease!

 

John

[guzzigary]

As Thelonious said (pretty sure he was referring to Guzzis)

 

"You gotta dig it to dig it, you dig?"

[docc]

Had a Pirsig moment on this weekend's ride to the lakes on the KY-TN. Like Pirsig's motorcycle trip, my son was along (on his own Guzzi). Not an hour out I spot a red-wing black bird as we pull away from a stop. I honestly cannot remember the last one I've seen.

 

"RED WING BLACKBIRD!" I holler and point.

 

Then I say out loud, in my helmet, "I've seen MILLIONS of those, Dad!"

 

An instantaneous moment of differential significance. 

[czakky]

Too funny! On Monday at work I was chatting with my co-workers about motorcycles and a guy says something about the fear of hitting birds is too much for him to ever ride. I told a couple stories about guys I knew hitting birds but I'd never hit one. Of course on my way home that day aboard my bike I tagged a red winged blackbird. Yes, for some reason that part of the book stuck with me too, every time I see a red winged I think of that. Not sure how much that ties into your story Docc but thought it was funny.
The ghost of Pirsig!

[docc]

The ghost of Pirsig!

= "Phædrus" . . .

[sign216]

Reading through old posts, I had to reply.

 

I first started this book at 22 yrs old, and put it down.  I felt like there was no Zen and no Motorcycle Maintenance.

 

30 yrs later, at 52 yrs old.  I read it and understood .  The relationship between a Man and his Son, and between Him and the World.

What a change.

 

 

Reading a guidebook on what was going on Pirsig's life help me appreciate the book. 

He was mad, but wasn't bound by the invisible chains that bind most of us. 

A solid read, even if I don't understand every last word.

[gstallons]

If my memory serves me correctly , Pirsig was turned down by just about every publisher on the planet . 

[docc]

  Wendy Pirsig has donated the Super Hawk to the Smithsonian.

"Bob’s philosophy explored human values, and he aimed to show how quality is actually at the center of all existence,” Wendy Pirsig says. “It seems consistent with this focus on quality that his motorcycle collection joins the nation’s exemplary history museum at the Smithsonian.”

 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/cycle-zen-art-and-motorcycle-maintenance-comes-smithsonian-180973836/

[Not exactly "breaking news" as the Smithsonian article is a year old, but it's the first I've heard of it.]

[docc]

Another article from The Smithsonian with more references and photos, including this amazing period photo of Pirsig with his son on the SuperHawk . . .

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/zen-motorcycle-still-inspires-philosophical-road-trippers-50-years-later-180984143/