The interview: Robert Pirsig
// September 19th, 2007 // Art, Music & Poetry
“At 78, Robert Pirsig, probably the most widely read philosopher alive, can look back on many ideas of himself. There is the nine-year-old-boy with the off-the-scale IQ of 170, trying to work out how to connect with his classmates in Minnesota. There is the young GI in Korea picking up a curiosity for Buddhism while helping the locals with their English. There is the radical, manic teacher in Montana making his freshmen sweat over a definition of ‘quality’. There is the homicidal husband sectioned into a course of electric-shock treatment designed to remove all traces of his past. There is the broken-down father trying to bond with his son on a road trip. There is the best-selling author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, offering solutions to the anxieties of a generation. And there is, for a good many years, the reclusive yachtsman,
trying to steer a course away from cultish fame.
Pirsig doesn’t do interviews, as a rule; he claims this one will be his last. He got spooked early on. ‘In the first week after I wrote Zen I gave maybe 35,’ he says, in his low, quick-fire Midwestern voice, from behind his sailor’s beard. ‘I found it very unsettling. I was walking by the post office near home and I thought I could hear voices, including my own. I had a history of mental illness, and I thought: it’s happening again. Then I realised it was the radio broadcast of an interview I’d done. At that point I took a camper van up into the mountains and started to write Lila, my second book…’”
Arthur
Very curious about something that seemingly has nothing to do with Zen and/or Pirsig.
Have you read the Harry Potter books? Any one in the series?
And if you have… (even if you havent) what are your views on a series that has sold more than C.S Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” and Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” COMBINED?!
I would be really interested in your reply. You can post a reply on my blog or I can just come back to this comments page and read your reply.
Cheers
Hey Ladi,
I haven’t read any of Rowling’s books, so my opinions are rather unfounded and coloured by my assumptions of the series in contrast to other classic works- like Tolkeins work you mention or Frank Herberts Dune saga.
Objectively, the popularity of the series has had some very positive impacts.
“51% of Harry Potter readers ages 5–17 said that while they did not read books for fun before they started reading Harry Potter, they now did. The study further reported that according to 65% of children and 76% of parents, they or their children’s performance in school improved since they started reading the series. Charlie Griffiths, director of the National Literacy Association, said “Anyone who can persuade children to read should be treasured and what [Rowling has] given us in Harry Potter is little short of miraculous.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter#Cultural_impact
I like the author Fay Weldon critc, while admitting that the series is “not what the poets hoped for,” nevertheless goes on to say, “but this is not poetry, it is readable, saleable, everyday, useful prose”.
peace