On the Trail

I buy most of my books from Abebooks, i.e. abebooks.com.  There I can search and find any book that is no longer available in the stores and buy it many times for less than five dollars including shipping. Since my credit card is stored in the site, within a couple of minutes whatever book I can imagine is headed to my mailbox. The only effort involved is to reach in the mailbox a few days later when I pull in the driveway.

I try to keep at least one copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig on the shelf on any given day.  I've read the book three times, but I keep it handy to give copies away.  Only a few of the people I've given the book to over the years have read all of it.  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is not an easy read.

If you've never read it and think you're going to, I don't think what you'll read here contains any spoilers. I just hope to encourage you to read the book..

When I logged onto Abebooks a few days ago to order a copy of "Motorcycle Maintenance", the first hit was Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I could tell by the title that the author, Mark Richardson, retraced Pirsig's trip on his own bike and wrote his version of the fabled story.  I'm reading that book now. Although I've read Pirsig's book several times, I realize while reading this one I not only have forgotten many details, I missed many details.  The next book I'm going to read  after "On the Trail of..." is the original Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Mark Twain said that you need to read a good book at least three times to understand it.  Primarily because though the book hasn't changed, you've changed.  It will be a completely different book. Apparently I need to  read Pirsig's book  at least four times.

In the Author's Note on the first page of the book Pirsig writes, "What follows is based on actual occurrences, although much has been changed for rhetorical purposes, it must be regarded in its essence as fact. However, it should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very factual on motorcycles either."

Pirsig's book is about "quality" or "what is good." He builds his narrative around a motorcycle trip from Minnesota to California. "Motorcycle Maintenance" was published in 1974 after being turned down by more than 100 publishers.  The book has sold more than 5 million copies.  I must have read the book the first time around 1989 or 1990 because my son was about the same age as Pirsig's son, Chris, who accompanied him on the trip. That's part of the reason the book so powerfully resonated with me. And Chris was all of the reason why what I read several years later in Pirsig's introduction to a  Silver Anniversary Edition had such a profound impact on me. What he said about "actual occurrences" in the Author's Note  took on a whole new meaning.

The book has achieved a cult following, well except a "cult following" by definition is a "small" but passionately dedicated fan base. If it has "sold" 5 million copies, how many have been passed
around?

Richardson quotes Pirsig on page 120 of "On the Trail of...".   "Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions."  For me this is at the very heart of Pirsig's book.  Be forewarned that you will have to wade through pages and pages of dialectic to get to that.

I realized something this afternoon while reading Richardson's book. If you are among those who have read "Motorcycle Maintenance" you are in a club. The membership only includes those who can honestly say "I have read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance from cover to cover."   If you talk to someone who has read the book, then you have a significant touch point  with that person.  I'm sure that those who have retraced the trip on a motorcycle are not all that impressed with my particular club membership.

In 1980, six years after Pirsig published his book, a teenager in my church youth group challenged me with a question?  "David, does everything have to be profound?" After thirty six years I can answer her question with a resounding "No!"   On the other  hand, do not some things we think are insignificant at the time become extremely significant over time? And other things we know are profound when they happen.  Reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for me is one of those things. I look forward to retracing the journey and being touched again. The book may not be all that factual about Zen Buddhism and motorcycles, but it's always factual about me.