I totally love and revere the book (ZATAOMM), and have read it multiple times.
Then again, I am super-detail-oriented, so that makes sense to me, because IMHO that’s the kind of audience for whom Pirsig wrote the book.
It _is_ a book about the nature of quality, after all, and Pirsig spent four years writing it, with the aid of PostIt notes all over the walls to organize it.
Not all people are detail-oriented enough to be capable of the laser-like focus needed to get all of the way through the book without losing interest. No offense intended, each to their own.
I agree with you, it’s a fantastic book, and not really about motorcycles at all.
(If memory serves, Pirsig used note cards or slips of paper to assemble this ambitious work. Post-It’s were first sold in 1977; the book was published in 1974.)
Those who have an open mind and want to try the book should find the 10th anniversary edition; the author’s afterword explains some things that some readers found elusive.
Ah, yes, my mistake. In my memory I confused index cards with PostIt notes.
> and not really about motorcycles at all
It's Zen, but it's not about Zen; it describes motorcycle maintenance, but it's not about motorcycle maintenance.
These are just a vehicle (no pun intended) for Pirsig to show us the inside of his post-apocalyptic mind, as far as he could remember once being who he called Phaedrus before they zapped him.
I found the book a multidimensional view of Pirsig's current and previous mental state and philosophy, just like the description of a computer software architecture is a multidimensional view of the architecture, neither and none of which can be described by a mere linear narrative.
It (ZATAOMM) is part philosophy, part memoir, part attack on what he calls the Church of Reason, part description of insanity, and more things I can't think of right now. No wonder it took him 4 years to pull together all those threads of consciousness, some of which were very damaged indeed.
Although, like another commenter noted, just spending 4 years on writing a book doesn't mean it automatically deserves accolades - and I agree with that observation - someone who reads it with even a fraction of the patience and insight with which it was written, might be tempted to award accolades after all.
Then again, I am super-detail-oriented, so that makes sense to me, because IMHO that’s the kind of audience for whom Pirsig wrote the book.
It _is_ a book about the nature of quality, after all, and Pirsig spent four years writing it, with the aid of PostIt notes all over the walls to organize it.
Not all people are detail-oriented enough to be capable of the laser-like focus needed to get all of the way through the book without losing interest. No offense intended, each to their own.