Robert Pirsig - RIP.

[ColinJ]

I was looking for something the other day (a 12 volt power supply for an ADSL router if you must know!) and spotted my old copy of Zen and the Art ... It must be well over 30 years since I read it. I think that I will add it my list of books to reread. I remember it making a big impression on me at the time.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I have to confess that 'I never got it' - it was a cult read in my late teens so I had a go and it didn't work for me. Many of my friends thought it was great.

Bit like Monty Python really. I never 'got that' either but my friends did.

Maybe I was/am just dopey. Maybe my friends thought they had to say they liked these things to be 'on trend' - not that that was a term back then.

 

[Chromatic]

I have to confess that 'I never got it' - it was a cult read in my late teens so I had a go and it didn't work for me. Many of my friends thought it was great.

Bit like Monty Python really. I never 'got that' either but my friends did.

Maybe I was/am just dopey. Maybe my friends thought they had to say they liked these things to be 'on trend' - not that that was a term back then.

Yes, angst ridden teeanagers trying desperately to appear cool, anyone with an ounce of discernment, me and @User259 for starters by the look of it, realised it was a complete load of drivel.

 

[Chromatic]

[QUOTE 4776668, member: 259"]I wouldn't say I had much discernment to be honest, and I wound't say it was a load of drivel, but I just found it dull, over-long and pretentious.[/QUOTE]

Same difference.

 

[MikeG]

I loved it. I drove the length of Africa a year or two after I read it, and whilst coaxing a pair of 19/ 20 year old vehicles through everything that Africa can throw at you for 6 months we remembered ZATAOMM endlessly. It is two stories though, interwoven, and I didn't have quite so much time for his navel gazing about Phaedrus, his pre-lobotomised (or was it ECT?) self.

 

[Crackle]

Yes, angst ridden teeanagers trying desperately to appear cool, anyone with an ounce of discernment, me and @User259 for starters by the look of it, realised it was a complete load of drivel.

I don''t know why you feel the need to post that in this thread really. I know a couple of people who didn't like the book and have posted in this thread without feeling the need to disparage. Being an RIP thread we normally stick to the convention of finding something good to say.

 

[Chromatic]

The difference lies in the words "I found it".

So did I.

 

[Chromatic]

I don''t know why you feel the need to post that in this thread really. I know a couple of people who didn't like the book and have posted in this thread without feeling the need to disparage. Being an RIP thread we normally stick to the convention of finding something good to say.

My apologies offered.

 

[Globalti]

I read, or speed read it two or three times and can't claim I read the philosophy bits thoroughly.... *cough* but I thoroughly enjoyed what he had to say about quality and about working on machinery, which was why I sat and laboriously transcribed that passage. I can't find any excerpts on the web at all.

 

[Profpointy]

I, like many here, read (Zen & ..) in my youth and found it quite inspiring, at least the first half, but lost my way in th latter part. Looking back i realise the 2nd half is (I think) his journey back from mental ilness and also quite profound if a more challenging read. I shall read it again. His writing on quality, craftsmanship both well illustrated by his specifix example of beer can being the perfect shim material stand the test of time. 35 years on I still feel it is an important book, and a good legacy to leave.
RIP Mr Pirsig

 

[BrumJim]

Didn't finish it as it was due back at the Library, but echo those here by describing it as a book that opened my eyes to the ways different minds work. Gave me a better understanding of other people than any other book that I have read.

 

[mjr]

I read, or speed read it two or three times and can't claim I read the philosophy bits thoroughly.... *cough* but I thoroughly enjoyed what he had to say about quality and about working on machinery, which was why I sat and laboriously transcribed that passage. I can't find any excerpts on the web at all.

Thanks for the reminder. And those children went on to start Half-odds.

I think the Zen book stands as one of those one-offs that really divides people. I've not tried Lila but you could never tell a story like Zen twice...

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I'll have to get a copy as I've never read it.

From what I gather it is probably a bit like A Brief History of Time by that Stephen Thingy, bought by many, read by few.

 

[Gravity Aided]

I didn't get much out of it, but I didn't have a lot of (or any idea of) eastern theology. It just didn't come up around the dinner table in the American Midwest, except my Dad's memories of Shintoism and Buddhism in post WWII Korea. Funny, as most Koreans I know are Presbyterians.