Robert M. Pirsig, Author of ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,’ Dies at 88

[JSngry]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/books/robert-pirsig-dead-wrote-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance.html?_r=0

Mr. Pirsig’s plunge into the grand philosophical questions of Western culture remained near the top of the best-seller lists for a decade and helped define the post-hippie 1970s landscape as resoundingly, some critics have said, as Carlos Castaneda’s “The Teachings of Don Juan” helped define the 1960s.

Where “Don Juan” pursued enlightenment in hallucinogenic experience, “Zen” argued for its equal availability in the brain-racking rigors of Reason with a capital R. Years after its publication, it continues to be invoked by famous people when asked to name a book that affected them most deeply — among them the former professional basketball player Phil Jackson, the actors William Shatner and Tim Allen, and the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel laureate.

 

[erwbol]

I read Zen more than twenty years ago, but don't remember the first thing about it.

Edited April 25, 2017 by erwbol

[Big Beat Steve]

How many bikers out there will have been caught off guard by that apparently misleading book title? (When doing your own maintenance you often need LOTS ot "zen" attitude when things just won't fit or you find there are some leftovers after everything HAS been reassembled ), thinking this may have been the motorcycle variant of THIS one (which was big at the same time too and was referred to as a "philosophy lesson disguised as a repair manual", incidentally)?

https://www.amazon.com/How-Keep-Your-Volkswagen-Alive/dp/1562614800

 

[Royal Oak]

3 hours ago, erwbol said:

I read Zen more than twenty years ago, but don't remember the first thing about it.

Me too! I bought a copy in a charity shop and re-read it maybe 2 years ago. I enjoyed it, though I suspect I enjoyed it for different reasons second time around.

[Jazzmoose]

I've read it  many times; it's a favorite.  I have to confess, I never got past the third page or so in the sequel.

[mikeweil]

I doubt it would fascinate me as much now as it did then, but it certainly was one of the most influential books of its time. R.I.P.

Strange that nobody seems to remember the late follow-up, Lila; An Inquiry into Morals, from 1991.