Engaging with the life and work of Robert M Pirsig
Trail runner and biker Rickey Gates reflects on Pirsig’s ZMM and concludes his body is “a system of concepts worked out in flesh and bone”.
Read his article “Zen and the Art of Trail Runner Maintenance” …
… updated in TrailRunner magazine and shared in the Run outdoor activity app.
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Activities of the RPA itself have slowed after the summer excitement of the #ZMM50thRide, but we are gearing-up to enhancing our on-line presence and thinking about future activities, on-line and physical. Meantime, we have some recent news items as we move into November 2024.
Confirmed subscriber members are now over 180 and three recent new members have shared their own Pirsig-inspired writings:
And finally, “Explore Big Sky” picked-up on our #ZMM50thRide Report and the additional photographs we linked there, and published their own piece on our 50th anniversary celebration.
The piece includes interviews with David Matos (RPA Co Chair and #ZMM50th Organiser, above pillion) and with Mel Pomeroy (Curator at the MSU Library) who hosted our access to their special MSU Pirsig collection. Perhaps a bit heavy on the explicit usage of acolytes and pilgrims, but a good piece of publicity for our RPA. What do you think?
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We noted among the planned 2024 events for #ZMM50th, that professor Steve Barbone of San Diego State University was delivering a Philosophy Talk on the work of Robert Pirsig back in May.
We are pleased to report that since then RPA Member Darrell Mann interviewed Professor Barbone and has posted the one hour conversation on his DangerMouth Podcast.
DangerMouth: The Innovation Station?
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As noted a couple of posts ago, RPA Member Sevilla King interviews fellow Pirsig enthusiasts on behalf of the RPA on her “A Quality Existence” YouTube channel. Keeping up that good work, her latest interview was with Canadian motoring journalist and author of “Zen and Now” Mark Richardson, who had most recently presented two talks as part of his participation in the #ZMM50thRide.
Sevilla’s conversation with Mark is now up on YouTube, linked and embedded below:
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This report is a selection of pictures with captions to illustrate participation in the first half (Days -1 to +6, July 6th to 13th) of the 2024 #ZMM50thRide commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM).
The RPA would welcome additional contributions from participants reflecting on their experience of the ride and what the 50th anniversary of ZMM means to them.
[It is a copy of the original Robert Pirsig Association #ZMM50thRide itinerary with photos (and videos) inserted, initially created by Sevilla King and with additional photos and captions. With so many pictures it may be slow to load first time, until cached local to your device. Note that there are many hundreds of additional photos and videos, and space to upload more in the collection linked at the end.]
Day -1: Saturday July 6th, 2024 – Meet-ups on Arrival in Minneapolis
Rod Orr’s first stop outside the original Pirsig home in St Paul MN.
At the Bang Brewery St Paul Mn, not far from the original Pirsig and Sutherland homes. [Jim Anderson, Rod Orr, Jon Kosmoski, Mark Privratsky, Steve Sappington, Nancy Schunke, Adah Schriever.]
Day 0: Sunday July 7th, 2024 – Pre-Ride Event hosted by Minneapolis Zen Meditation Center (MZMC)
The MZMC resources includes an extensive library. The cabinet in the middle of this wall of book-shelves is the Katagiri archive.
RPA event organiser Mark Privratsky doing the introductions, and later setting out expectations for #ZMM50thRide as a group ride.
MZMC Guiding Teacher, Ted O’Toole, welcoming the RPA and reminding us of Pirsig’s contribution to funding the MZMC building with immediate proceeds from the best-selling Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Ian Glendinning presenting the history and status of the Robert Pirsig Association as well as his own personal Pirsig journey that led to meeting and passing the biographical baton to journalist Mark Richardson. We also presented MZMC with a 50th Anniversary copy of ZMM and a copy of Pirsig’s original 1974 “Zen in Minnesota” brochure, recreated by RPA member Artun Turan.
Mark Richardson presenting a personal account of his two previous re-traces of the #ZMMRide and the Pirsig biographical research that led to his book “Zen and Now – on the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“. (That water pump really did exist and function.)
Some of the audience present at the MZMC – both members and RPA #ZMM50thRiders.
Local TV station Kare11 filmed and interviewed us. Ian Glendinning’s contribution made it as far as the cutting room floor, but Mark Privratsky’s talking head gave a great account of us in the 90 second evening news item publicising the start of the ride the following morning.
The evening at Lucky’s Bar in the Comfort Inn, Plymouth MN, from where the ride was to depart the following morning. [Nancy Schunke, Steve Sappington, Joe Kim, Amy Privratsky, Wim deHaas, Riejet deHaas, Wendy Richardson, David Matos, Eric Burt, Henry Gurr, Mark Richardson, John Chorne, Mark Privratsky, Rod Orr]
Henry Gurr and Mark Richardson
DAY 1: Monday July 8, 2024
Minneapolis, MN to Oakes, ND
8am Departing from Plymouth, MN Comfort Inn parking lot.
(Ride: ~280 miles. STAY: Oakes, ND motels or camping.)
Gathering in the parking lot of the Comfort Inn, Plymouth MN.
[Eric Burt, Rod Orr, Jon Kosmoski, Ben Boyer, Adah Schriever, Mark Privratsky, Richard Keist, John Chorne, David Talmage, Joe Kim, Henry Gurr]
What real maintenance looks like. David Talmage adjusting and lubing the chain of his Royal Enfield in a quiet, shaded corner of the parking lot.
(Almost) the whole party assembled with the two vintage Honda CB77 Superhawks on the ride from the start. [Steve Sappington, Nancy Schunke, Rod Orr, Wendy Richardson, John Chorne, Mark Privratsky, Eric Burt, David Matos, Adah Schriever, David Talmage, Riejet deHaas, Wim deHaas, Jon Kosmoski, Henry Gurr, Mark Richardson, Richard Keist, Ben Boyer, Ian Glendinning]
Our leader Mark Privratsky gets the #ZMM50thRide under way.
And the whole group follows, the bikes and then the cars, in convoy as a single caravan.
The first rest-stop just before Paynesville. The shaded picnic tables are still there, but the cast-iron water pump is no more.
Jim Anderson pumps the now imaginary pump.
Back on the road again.
Hans House Restaurant, Elbow Lake MN
The rest-stop with shaded picnic-table, near the Camp Buell marker in Milnor ND, is gone and grassed-over by recent commercial development, but traces of the location remain visible. (So recent, it’s still there on Google Maps in 2024 below) [Riejet deHaas, Wim deHass, Steve Sappington, Nancy, Mark Richardson, Jon Kosmoski, David Matos, Eric Burt, Mark Privratsky, David Talmage, Wendy Richardson, John Chorne, Joe Kim, Rod Orr, Ian Glendinning, Adah Schriever, Richard Keist, Henry Gurr.]
GoogleMaps2024
GoogleStreetView2024
The original 1968 father and son image.
Couldn’t resist the pose. (David Matos and Henry Gurr)
First running-repairs with the less-maintained CB77 Superhawk
There’s a whole story to be told by Ben Boyer (pictured), Jon Kosmoski and Jim Anderson of the travails of the two vintage CB77’s that came along for the ride.
Arrival at the the non-profit “Growing Small Towns“, for our Oakes ND Chamber of Commerce event.
7pm: Oakes Chamber of Commerce Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: (510 Main Ave, Oakes, ND 58474)
DAY 2: Tuesday July 9, 2024.
Oakes, ND to Shadehill, (nr Lemmon) SD.
Morning: Short visit to Coleman Museum in Ellendale, ND before main ride.
Arrival in Ellendale ND
The two CB77 Superhawks make it to Ellendale
(Ben Boyer, Jon Kosmoski)
Sign from the old NoDak Café preserved in the Coleman Museum, Ellendale. They even cut a hole in the ceiling to accommodate it.
[Photo: Group assembled around the NoDak sign.]
[RIDE: ~280 miles. STAY: Llewellyn Johns Recreation Area (Camping/RV)/ Shadehill Recreation Area (camping/RV or camping cabins). Dakota Hotel or other accommodations in Lemmon, SD.]
First stop at Ashley, ND. An agricultural kinda town.
Re-assembling after a fuel stop in Mobridge SD.
[Richard Keist, Rod Orr, John Chorne, Ben Boyer, Ian Glendinning]
Shadehill reservoir, camp-ground and cabins near Lemmon SD
The Petrified Forest park in Lemmon SD (Steve Sappington)
Shadehill / Lemmon, SD to Miles City, MT
(RIDE: ~200 miles STAY: Camping, Olive Hotel or other. Olive Hotel of historic significance, but not where the Pirsig party actually stayed.)
The Promised Land? First view onto Miles City in the Yellowstone valley.
[Note as a larger convoy of cars and bikes we pulled into the recreation area car park here on the right. If you pull into the track junction a little earlier – behind on the left – you can stroll onto the higher ground seen on the left here, and get the fuller view the Pirsig party originally saw.]
[Photo: Group at Tiltwerks Brewhouse, Miles City MT.]
DAY 4: Thursday July 11, 2024. Miles City, MT to Laurel, MT.
RIDE: ~160 miles. STAY: Laurel, MT.
[Previous retracings of this day’s ride had involved modern interstates I94 & I90 and their frontage roads. The plan was to attempt to follow Old Hwy10 as researched and suggested by Henry Gurr to be the original route.]
We found Old-Hwy-10 OK, but the first problem was the surface was badly maintained with too much broken gravel and pot-holes for road-bikes to use safely.
Yet still with traces of old yellow center-line markings, that it had once been the main road.
But up ahead, it was in fact closed.
RIDE: ~190 miles, Beartooth Mountain Highway & Yellowstone.
STAY: Hillcrest Cottages, otherwise Gardiner, MT area.
[Photos: Cooke City and the magnificent scenery of Beartooth and Yellowstone, from the 108F in Laurel to snow-lined road-sides at the Beartooth summit.]
By the time we reached Mammoth Springs, the weather was breaking.
Some of us made it to Gardiner MT, Hillcrest Cottages.
Could we make a Pirsig couplet fit Monty Pythons’ Philosophers’ Drinking Song? No, we couldn’t, but it was fun trying at The Iron Horse in Gardiner. (Ian Glendinning, Lee Glover, Eric Burt, David Matos, Steve Sappington, Nancy Schunke, Rod Orr)
Henry Gurr engaging with Chris McAvoy who had joined us in Gardiner from Bozeman.
DAY 6: Saturday July 13, 2024. Gardiner, MT to Bozeman, MT
RIDE: ~85 miles. STAY: Bozeman, MT.
11am to 3pm – Montana State University campus visit.
Montana State University Renne Library “All things Pirsig” collection (from 11:00am to 12:30pm) and the Museum of the Rockies Pirsig collection (from 1:30pm to 3:00pm)
An opportunity to see Montana Hall where Pirsig and Sarah Vinke worked and taught in their time at MSU (was MSC), just opposite the Library.
Group assembled outside the Renne Library, MSU Bozeman MT
[Steven Hunts (library), Ian Glendinning, Bill Ryder (joined group in Gardiner), Joe Kim, Jim Espeland (library), Lee Glover, Riejet deHaas, Wim deHaas, Henry Gurr, David Matos, Chris McAvoy, Eric Burt, David Talmage, Steve Sappington, Nancy Schunke, Adah Schriever, Rod Orr.]
The commemorative plaque created by the 2009 students of Chas Pinkava’s “Ways of Knowing” class. Originally in Montana Hall, but now mounted in the lobby of the MSU library.
Introductions in the MSU Library Special Collections, Pirsig archives.
[Jodi Allison-Bunnell (library), Adah Schriever, Riejet deHaas, Chris McAvoy, David Matos, Bill Ryder, Wim deHaas, Rod Orr, Eric Burt, Joe Kim, Steve Sappington, Henry Gurr, Ian Glendinning, Jim Espeland (library), David Talmage.]
Hands-on access to the archive collection – this box of DeWeese art relevant to Pirsig.
[Ian Glendinning, Joe Kim, Jan Zauha (library), Melissa Pomeroy (library), Chris McAvoy, Eric Burt, Jodi Allison-Bunnell (library), David Matos.]
This box includes a (very large) typed ZMM manuscript as well as Pirsig’s correspondence with the editor / publishers. [Wim deHaas, Henry Gurr, Chris McAvoy]
With special thanks to all the MSU Library and Special Collections staff, Melissa Pomeroy, Jodi Allison-Burnell and Jan Zauha (already captioned above) and to Valerie Mulliner and Helen Livingston below. As well as hosting us on their weekend, there had clearly been a great deal of preparation gone into our visit. Much appreciated by the RPA.
(And so much more – see the “All Things Pirsig” page and the links to the five indexed / itemised MSU Special Collection archives on that page.)
And so on to the Museum of the Rockies adjacent to the MSU Campus. The museum, given its location, is most famous for its geological and paleontological collections including many whole dinosaur fossil skeletons as their main visitor attractions, but we were hosted by the Montana Cultural Collection curator Michael Fox (in the red shirt).
As promised, we saw Pirsig’s lathe and workbench in the large cultural items collection. [Wim deHaas, Michael Fox (curator), Ian Glendinning, Chris McAvoy, Rod Orr, Eric Burt, David Matos, David Talmage, Joe Kim.]
Nameplate detail from the lathe.
In addition to the lathe and bench, one set of taps and dies remains on the bench.
Although we had been warned to expect to see only the lathe, curator Michael Fox also took us to the small cultural items store where by chance we came across the collection of smaller Pirsig workshop tools awaiting processing and cataloguing.
The small tools collection included the Machine Shop Practice manual.
All good things must come to an end.
Farewell Ian Glendinning from Henry Gurr.
After 3pm – Ride to DeWeese home in Cottonwood Canyon.
Watch this space.
END OF PART 1
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[Not included above, the photo collection of every participant individually with their ride, holding their travelling copy(ies) of ZMM.]
These and many more photos and videos from Part 1 – Minneapolis to Bozeman in our Google Drive. Acknowledgements to all the photographers. Mark Richardson’s folder contains raw video of all the presentations, suitable for transcripts if maybe not viewing. If you have more to share contact us and we can provide an upload folder for you.
The full story of PART 2 to follow, when David Matos and Henry Gurr are returned and recovered.
Part 2 started inauspiciously when several of the party had contracted Covid, with two particularly incapacitated and unable to continue as planned. We wish them well. With Richard Keist having gone ahead to experience the bends of Lolo Pass at his own speed, that left only Henry and David to complete Part 2 per plan.
Good news. Only David and Henry made it to the end, but Steve and Nancy went out from their home in California to meet them at Caspar / Mendocino – the real scene of the dramatic climax in the ZMM narrative, with typical California sunshine in place of the original dark and foggy scene.
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Whilst some of us have been participating in the #ZMM50thRide (news update soon) Sevilla King has been continuing her series of conversations with some of our longer-standing RPA members, discussing the ways many of our lives and work have been influenced by Pirsig’s work.
Most recently “Horse” (Mick White), erstwhile curator of the MoQ.Org web-site and discussion channel.
And before that Khoo Hock Aun, Director of the ASEAN Green Chamber of Commerce in KL Malaysia.
For more see Sevilla’s “A Quality Existence” SubStack and YouTube channels. Other interviewees are already lined-up, but if you or others you know should be interviewed, do let us know. In any event do let us have your own testimonial.
Later today Saturday 18th May at 8pm BST BBC Radio “Archive on 4” is broadcasting it’s own #ZMM50th program:
“includes archive interviews with Robert Pirsig and landmarks of the book’s cultural impact. It also features a lecture by Pirsig, given in 1974, that has never been broadcast before. Chris interviews Wendy Pirsig, Robert’s wife and Jim Landis, the editor of the book. He also speaks to others who have been influenced by the book, including the philosopher Jonathan Rowson, the actor Rufus Hound and the poet Ann Tweedy.”
The podcast link remains accessible after broadcast.
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Apologies for two news posts inside one week, but things are happening in this busy #ZMM50th anniversary period.
Thanks to all of those who delivered our inaugural on-line Chautauqua and to all those that attended.
We have one new item added to our #ZMM50th events page. If you are in the San Diego area on May 6th there is – a Philosophy Talk on “ZMM at 50” at San Diego Central Library, by professor Steven Barbone of San Diego State University, CA.
The earliest literary review of Pirsig’s ZMM – by the “stellar” George Steiner as Jim Landis reminded us in the Chautauqua above – compared Bob’s road-trip “quest” for the meaning of life to that of Melville’s Ahab in Moby Dick. Much more recently the RPA notes that the celebrated, and thankfully still living, magical-realism author Salman Rushdie describes his own inspiration in Bob’s ZMM.
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If you have news or #ZMM50th events to tell us about, or offers of volunteering to help the RPA, please use our contact forms?
Or if Bob’s work inspired your own life and work, why not share a Testimonial with us?
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Firstly, a reminder not to miss our first On-Line Chautauqua event (previous post) coming up this weekend on Sunday 28th at 11am Eastern. If you can’t make the live-stream, the recording will be up afterwards on our Robert Pirsig Association YouTube channel.
Monday last week, the anniversary of ZMM publication on April 15th, saw the opening of the “Zen and the Open Road” exhibit at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. RPA member Sevilla King organised a meet-up and collected photos for our album of that event. Matt Crawford, author of the new foreword to the 50th Anniversary edition of ZMM marked the occasion with publishing his reflection on “Reading Pirsig Now” on his “Archedelia” SubStack blog.
The #ZMM50th event attracting the most interest continues to be the #ZMM50thRide and the itinerary of the ride and associated events is coming together. Look out for more detailed future updates on this July event.
As well as updates to the RPA web-pages about these #ZMM50th and ZMM50thRide events, we are turning our attention to the longer-term RPA content and activities beyond the 2024 anniversary year. There are some interesting new Testimonials on that page, and the Online-Resources page has been revamped to reflect our planned work-in-progress. Any contributions and/or offers of assistance with these RPA activities will be much appreciated. Please use the contact form for any suggestions or questions.
See you all on Sunday.
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The Robert Pirsig Association (RPA) is pleased to announce our Inaugural Online Chautauqua(*) Part of #ZMM50th – our activities to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Robert Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” (ZMM) in April 1974.
Make a date in your diary for Sunday 28th April
(Live at 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern, 4pm UK, 5pm EU, 11pm KL, 3am Saturday NZ – for ~1.5 Hours, with the recording available thereafter.)
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YouTube Livestream – bookmark this link:
https://www.youtube.com/live/U_uReIyx9a4?si=wF8W6eyNl9D_ZM_v
(*) New to Chautauqua? – it’s an old idea.
More? See #ZMM50th and #ZMM50thRide.
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