Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values was finally published in 1974 after being turned down by 121 publishers. This remains a record for a successful book.
I have read it at least twice. The first time was in 1976 after discovering that it had little to do with either Zen, motorcycles or maintenance. Rather, as only perceptive reviewers discovered, it was about quality. The Times obituary put it like this:
"... this idiosyncratic work can be construed as a far-reaching dissertation on the relationship between science and mysticism; mind versus machine; the western idea of enlightenment through reason versus the eastern idea of enlightenment through mystical experience. At the heart of the book is the meaning and concept of “quality”."
I'm writing this now because Robert Pirsig, its author, died on April 24. I have the copy on my desk as I write this: so creased and bruised with detached pages that I suspect I may have read it more than twice. It was one of the great books of my life.
The last time I read it (I think) was around 2002 when the university sector was being hammered into line by the ludicrously-named Quality Assurance Agency. Its hit squads toured campuses ensuring that universities conformed to its norms and standards in terms of teaching. As Kipling so nearly put it:
England's on the anvil from the severn to the Tyne.
We're being hammered, hammered, hammered; hammered into line.
Pirsig helped me through what was the lowest ebb of my long university career. It also regularly came to mind during those dark days when the HEA and QAA got together to try to set standards for ESD in universities. QAA didn't understand sustainability and the HEA didn't understand quality; neither seemed to really understand what universities were for in a free society. Whatever became of all those ideas, I wonder ...
The front cover of my copy of the Corgi paperback says: "This book will change the way you think and feel about your life." It did. And on the inside, just before Part 1 begins, there is this:
And what is good, Phaedrus,
And what is not good–
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?
RIP QAA. No one will miss you.
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