An introduction of quotes from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance written 9/2/04

These are quotes from the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, by Robert Persig.

I read this book in 1976 as a college freshman. At least that is what my memory tells me now in 2004. The copy of the book I have was actually printed in 1980 and I do not remember having more than one copy of the book. I know I first heard about (and saw) the book as a college freshman in 1976-1977. I know it was used as a text in a philosophy course I did not take, but that someone I knew did take the course – or maybe I just saw the book in the bookstore listed as required for the course and I flipped through it while I was killing time working in the bookstore, manning the “back desk.” Maybe I had just decided to read it in 1976 and actually got around to purchasing and reading it in 1980. Time plays tricks on your memory. At any rate…

My habit was then (as now) to mark a passage that I found particularly interesting or significant as I read it, so that later I could come back and more easily extract these “pearls”. If I re-read a book after an interval of years, I might choose different “pearls” because I am a different person during the second reading. These are the “pearls” of the first reading.

A “pearl” that I did not mark (because it was easy to find) and I have remembered all these years is the Author’s Note before the beginning of the text:

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.

This brings up the whole interesting concept of fiction vs. non-fiction and the relationship (or lack thereof) between facts and truth. I seem to remember someone famous being quoted as saying something along the lines of “Don’t bother me with the facts. I am dealing with a question of truth here.” I should try to look this up sometime…