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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 24, 2017 - 04:22pm PT
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Author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A classic read from the '70's. Rest In Peace
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Apr 24, 2017 - 04:46pm PT
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Damn, wish he'd written more. If you haven't read Lila, which he wrote thirty years later, then I would very much recommend it...
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Apr 24, 2017 - 05:12pm PT
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That was about the slowest book I ever read but I liked theidea of the freight train of reality
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Craig Fry
Trad climber
So Cal.
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Apr 24, 2017 - 05:23pm PT
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I'm not a romantic
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Apr 24, 2017 - 05:45pm PT
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tried to read the motorcycle book in my teenage motorcycle days but it was a bit too slow for me...
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Apr 24, 2017 - 06:22pm PT
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Didn't he rate funky back road cafes by their calendars?
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BrassNuts
Trad climber
Save your a_s, reach for the brass...
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Apr 24, 2017 - 06:25pm PT
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Great book. I remember reading it in between jaunts on my rice rocket! :-)
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Apr 24, 2017 - 06:41pm PT
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RIP
I read about half of his Zen soon after college, when my life was most subject to suggestions and random fate pushing me in any direction.
The one thing that sticks with me from the book- perhaps something that unintentionally has been an anthem of my life more because of my own nature than because of any conscious pursuit- is the false dichotomy between art and science, between the creative and analytical mind. Being partial to both and not seeing a clear distinction, it has made me feel less in communion with folks who strongly adhere to one camp or the other.
I am curious to go back now and read it again, to see what different points resonate with me at this stage of my life.
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yanqui
climber
Balcarce, Argentina
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Apr 24, 2017 - 07:37pm PT
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Read the "Zen" book in high school and was intrigued. Tried a philosophy class in college and wound up with a great professor (Stephen Scott). He was a living incarnation of Socrates. Ended up majoring in philosphy, taking 90 credits (two full years) of classes from Dr. Scott. In the end I went for a doctorate in pure mathematics because it seemed like the closest thing to philosophy where I might possibly get a job. Climbing and philosophy: the beautiful thing about these activities is you can't jusify them. They don't pretend to be about anything useful (my apologies to Royal Robbins). RIP Robert Pirsig.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Apr 24, 2017 - 08:05pm PT
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but it was a bit too slow for me...
Of course it was, my man, he was riding a Honda 350.
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zBrown
Ice climber
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Apr 24, 2017 - 08:30pm PT
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But what of Mr. Pirsig and, of course, his son?
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Hubbard
climber
San Diego
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Apr 24, 2017 - 09:24pm PT
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Basic thing I took from his Zen book was the perception of quality. What is it that makes one thing better than others. Why is this climb better than that one?
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Apr 25, 2017 - 06:31am PT
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I read both several scrap times. My favorite take away was about riding. In paraphrase; " narrow your focus to the wall, count five bricks from the bottom, thre for on the right. Concentrate on writing about that brick!
RIP and Thanks! I wish there here was a larger body of work to explore! Just what I Asian about the writing of Jim Carroll when he, died..
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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Apr 25, 2017 - 06:37am PT
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Of course it was, my man, he was riding a Honda 350.
That Honda 350 was a great machine... Had one for a bit in college. Unregistered of course. Fast enough at a time where a CBR900RR would have simply been certain death.
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MikeL
Social climber
Southern Arizona
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Apr 25, 2017 - 06:49am PT
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Zen was a book of many topics. I was surprised that it was so well received by people. It now seems a book of the times. It touched on many vague issues resonating in popular psyche at that time. The war was still going on, the hippie “revolution” was beginning to wind down, fractioned politics (groups) was beginning to emerge, yuppies would soon to assert their cultural influence, and on and on. Even Zen was becoming a “thing” in the U.S. Pirsig seemed to speak to our anomie.
As a budding academic, the book got me thinking about what I was studying—not the content, but the whole enterprise. He sowed existential doubt in a Kerouac sort of way, but in a new spiritual context.
At this wizened age (ha-ha), I look back on those times and think that so many things offered great promise—and almost every one of them failed, almost miserably.
As my dear mum says: “Oh well.”
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kpinwalla2
Social climber
WA
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Apr 25, 2017 - 07:29am PT
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Read Pirsig in college after strong recommendations from several friends. My take-away was - dude needs to get a life and quit obsessing on stuff that doesn't really matter. Perhaps I need to read it again now that I am slightly more mature to pick up the significance...
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 25, 2017 - 08:14am PT
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Loved that book, but I'm not sure why.
Excellent obit in today's LA Times:
...he was hospitalized for an emotional collapse.
"this is described in the psychiatric canon as catatonic schizophrenia. It is cited in the
Buddhist canon as hard enlightenment," he told Britain's Observer newspaper in 2006.
His son was stabbed to death in San Francisco near the Zen center where he lived in 1979.
He only wrote one other book: Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals.
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wayne w
Trad climber
the nw
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Apr 26, 2017 - 01:58am PT
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It was actually a Honda 305 Superhawk that he rode. The 350 came out a bit later.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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Apr 26, 2017 - 03:21am PT
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one of a very very few authors that i can positively say changed the way i approached life.
both books opened up significant new ways of perceiving/understanding.
thank you and rip.
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Dingus McGee
Social climber
Where Safety trumps Leaving No Trace
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Apr 26, 2017 - 04:37am PT
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The likes of the line I remember most:
The main character in the book says to his academic mentor, "You said, suppose that .... [such and such]
Details ..?
When I work on my semi unique edirtbike I sometimes think of that book with an altered title:
Zen and the Art of Edirtbike Creation:
What to keep of the bike and what needs to be moto like for the ultra edirtbike.
Fine Tuning
For me 18,000 miles of touring the West one summer on a Honda 350 Scrambler.
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