Author Topic: Robert Pirsig RIP  (Read 1871 times)

Robert Pirsig RIP
« on: 25 April, 2017, 08:25:15 am »
Zen is one of my favourite books, read it loads of times and always find something new in it.   RIP

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Robert Pirsig RIP
« Reply #1 on: 25 April, 2017, 08:30:58 am »
That is a great book - for anyone who just wants to think a bit, but also for anyone working in management systems its an interesting perspective.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: Robert Pirsig RIP
« Reply #2 on: 25 April, 2017, 08:44:56 am »
Fascinating man, the book is great for an insight into mental illness, parenthood and how to approach many aspects of life.
It's also good for an insight into the tribulations of working as a technical author (well for one chapter).

I've owned copies (several, I think, seemed to lose then buy another of Zen) of both of his books.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Robert Pirsig RIP
« Reply #3 on: 25 April, 2017, 09:42:19 am »
I'm enough of a ZMM fan to have retraced the route of the motorcycle trip back in 2009, at least as far as it was still possible forty years after the event.  Sad now :'(
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Robert Pirsig RIP
« Reply #4 on: 25 April, 2017, 01:14:59 pm »
 :'(
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Robert Pirsig RIP
« Reply #5 on: 25 April, 2017, 03:01:13 pm »
When I was about 20, someone (a motorcyclist) said what a great book ZMM was. I tried to read it but found it a bit incomprehensible or maybe just boring or odd. About 20 years later I read it all and it made sense, sort of at least.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Robert Pirsig RIP
« Reply #6 on: 25 April, 2017, 03:16:30 pm »
I enjoyed it from quite a young age, my brother bought a copy when he was about 18, so I guess I was 14. As someone who naturally looked at things and put them into categories, then mentally disassembled them, put them into different categories and wondered if that changed them, it made sense to me.
Don't grow up in a rural area and talk about things like that out loud. It gets you labelled as weird and usually punched.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Robert Pirsig RIP
« Reply #7 on: 25 April, 2017, 09:22:25 pm »
same thing happens if you "act a bit clever" i.e. think, amongst a bunch of RAF brats, or in Basingstoke
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Robert Pirsig RIP
« Reply #8 on: 25 April, 2017, 11:10:43 pm »
RIP. I read Zen and the Art long ago. Very interesting book.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Robert Pirsig RIP
« Reply #9 on: 25 April, 2017, 11:27:09 pm »
Zen and the Art was a set book on a university course I did, called 'Social Cybernetics'. Another was 'The Dice Man', it was the 1970s though.
Some quite sensible advice on shimming out loose handlebars with bits of Coke can as I remember.

I was assembling a Norton Dominator 99 from parts at the time.

Re: Robert Pirsig RIP
« Reply #10 on: 26 April, 2017, 05:03:25 pm »
The 1990 400 page "Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by DiSanto and Steele includes lots of fascinating background to the book: maps, chronology, western philosophy, eastern mysticism, critical reception, correspondence with Robert Redford on the film Redford intended to make of the book, works about ZMM, etc etc.. Worth a look if you find a cheap s/h copy on Amazon.

ZMM must have been reprinted within the last couple of years because I found a new copy in one of the few remaining real bookshops in the area.

Some of Pirsig's other novels are quite haunting too.

Bryn

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Robert Pirsig RIP
« Reply #11 on: 26 April, 2017, 06:18:31 pm »
The 1990 400 page "Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by DiSanto and Steele includes lots of fascinating background to the book: maps, chronology, western philosophy, eastern mysticism, critical reception, correspondence with Robert Redford on the film Redford intended to make of the book, works about ZMM, etc etc.. Worth a look if you find a cheap s/h copy on Amazon.

This Unit also endorses "Now And Zen" by Mark Richardson, which is mostly an account of his retracing the journey but also has some interesting background Stuffs.  I got a copy in San Francisco airport in 2008; no idea if it was ever published in BRITAIN.

ZMM must have been reprinted within the last couple of years because I found a new copy in one of the few remaining real bookshops in the area.

Some of Pirsig's other novels are quite haunting too.

I bought a "25th Anniversary Edition", published in 1999, in ~ 2008 on account of my 1979 edition falling to bits.  iIRC it came from Waterstones.  Pirsig only wrote one other book, viz. "Lila" (1991), which I couldn't get on with at all.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime