I just finished re-reading Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. In the Author’s Note he makes the following statement:
So how much of what he says about his past is factual? Was he really insane at some point? Did his personalities re-integrate? Was he really a professor in Montana? Did he really do all this research into Quality?
I’m guessing that because of the popularity of the book and the general inquisitiveness of the public the answers to these questions are known. Does anyone know where I can find them?
well well said the royal desiccation my political opponents back home always maintained
that i would wind up in hell and it seems they had the right dope
Don Marquis archy interviews a pharaoh
His statement seems clear, he didn’t change the facts but he rearranged them to make the story flow better. FWIW I’ve driven many of the routes he took and the geographical facts are correct. He was an instructor at MSU.
His son Chris was murdered quite a few years ago.
This book was very important in my life. I was 18 and living in the backcountry of Yosemite. It was 1975 and I had graduated high school but had no idea what I was going to do with my life. I was also a “boy genius” so I releted to Phaedrus very well. I read the book over and over again, and I was never quite the same afterwards. I don’t think I’m the only one who’s life was deeply touched by this brilliant book.