You keep arguing that the author is obsessed with quality, and therefore the book is imbued with an abundance of it. Quality is totally subjective. Taking four years to write a book and obsessing over quality is really not a badge of honor in and of itself.
You misunderstand defined's post. He's not saying that ZATAOMM is a high quality book, because the author was obsessed with ensuring that his book was of high quality. If that was the case, you would be (mostly) right, as there is a subjective aspect to determining quality.
No.
ZATAOMM is a book about the philosophical concept of "Quality". What is "Quality"? What do we mean when we say the word "quality"? How does that understanding, or lack thereof, impact our life, sciences, and society?
That is what defined meant. Read with that understanding, defined's statement reads:
I believe ZATAOMM is a work of genius, that was only possible due to the author's obsession with learning everything he could about the topic of the book before writing it.
Thank you for explaining that. You are exactly right.
I really should have spelled it Quality, to show that I meant the philosophy of Quality rather than its more mundane interpretation.
At the same time, in an interview with Pirsig that I read somewhere, IIRC he did rather archly claim something to the effect that the book had better be high quality, considering its subject matter.
I tried to find that interview, but could only come up with this piece [1].
I also dislike the book. As someone who loves motorcycles and fixing an old Honda myself, it is something I want to love. To me, the protagonist is trying to show how smart he is after reading some intro to philosophy book.
It made a lot of sense to me as an undergrad philosophy student, reading it shortly after I graduated. IMHO the book is somewhat better if understood as a criticism of the Socratic pursuit of universal Truth if you are familiar with the context. But unfortunately this book is recommended to a general audience, for which I think it is a poor novel.
Pirsig did have at least some formal academic knowledge of philosophy though.
From Wikipedia [0]:
> Pirsig earned a bachelor's degree in 1950 from the University of Minnesota.[8] He then attended Banaras Hindu University in India, to study Eastern philosophy and culture. At the University of Chicago, he performed graduate-level work in philosophy in the Committee on the Analysis of Ideas and Study of Methods but he did not obtain a degree there. In 1958 he earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota.
>To me, the protagonist is trying to show how smart he is after reading some intro to philosophy book.
I'd accept that accusation from people who have read many philosophy books and delved much deeper, and regularly read heavy discourses into the subtleties of the topics examined in ZatAoMM.
Else, it sounds to me like "I'm a plain Joe, I work hard, watch TV, and drink Budweiser, who's this guy writing all fancy about philosophy, when they don't even have a philosophy degree? I don't read no philosophy, but if I ever did, I'd check a professional, not some writer guy. Just gimme a page turner airport-thriller writer-boy".
