Found on 'A List of Valuable Things'
In Z&AoMM, Robert Pirsig starts chapter 4 with a list of valuable things "to take on your next motorcycle trip across the Dakotas". This is part of an exercise in general list making. Pirsig suggests that general list making is important, that a list of "valuable things to remember" should be kept in a "safe place for times of future need and inspiration". I'm sitting at my desk at work and I'm thinking (surrounded by lists) that not making lists is probably what I really should be doing right now...
Pirsig makes a list right down to the number of pairs of underwear and shirts and then, at the end of the list, he includes Thoreau's Walden which he suggests can be read a hundred times without exhaustion. I wonder if it's just for him or if Walden has that special quality that I know Don Quixote has for me. Walden is very readable. Maybe Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has that quality too (only 98.75 more readings to go!). I'm thinking that The Odyssey and Ulysses might too or Alice in Wonderland or Tristram Shandy -- books I think I could read a hundred times. Certainly not Lord of the Rings though. And ATP is a special case because it's the book I may never finish and always read.
In Z&AoMM, Robert Pirsig starts chapter 4 with a list of valuable things "to take on your next motorcycle trip across the Dakotas". This is part of an exercise in general list making. Pirsig suggests that general list making is important, that a list of "valuable things to remember" should be kept in a "safe place for times of future need and inspiration". I'm sitting at my desk at work and I'm thinking (surrounded by lists) that not making lists is probably what I really should be doing right now...
Pirsig makes a list right down to the number of pairs of underwear and shirts and then, at the end of the list, he includes Thoreau's Walden which he suggests can be read a hundred times without exhaustion. I wonder if it's just for him or if Walden has that special quality that I know Don Quixote has for me. Walden is very readable. Maybe Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has that quality too (only 98.75 more readings to go!). I'm thinking that The Odyssey and Ulysses might too or Alice in Wonderland or Tristram Shandy -- books I think I could read a hundred times. Certainly not Lord of the Rings though. And ATP is a special case because it's the book I may never finish and always read.
posted by Anne @ 8:13 AM
2 Comments:
At 10:42 PM,
Stella said…
I picked up Z&AoMM today from the library - it's a 1999 edition with a foreward by Pirsig where he talks about the failures of the book...but i won't go into that here. It's just interesting. A good indicator of how engrossing a book is, for me, is that my tea gets cold. I like his tone and honesty. I just finished The Road by Cormack McCarthy, maybe it's a good partner to this (maybe not) just because it's about a father and son too.
Walden features prominently in Franny and Zoey too. I'm glad you said Walden is really readable. I had a lot of trouble with American Transcendentalists in University - if that's the right association to make...but I'll take another try.
D+G is just like fishing. Most of the time I don't catch anything, sometimes a nibble, but I'm there because I enjoy the state of being receptive.
At 9:11 AM,
Anne said…
A theory of poetry would be a great description of the text. It's actually called A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuse and Felix Guattari - a wonderful, difficult book!
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