It was the 2024 #ZMM50th anniversary of the 1974 publication of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) that prompted us to create the Robert Pirsig Association (RPA). We have pooled all new, existing and legacy online resources, and links to offline / physical resources, relevant to Pirsig’s life and work. The full scope of these are summarised and searchable below.
More recently available media considered essential viewing / listening for Pirsig readers, include firstly: Perhaps the most important piece of film of Bob speaking, only weeks after publication of ZMM at the Minneapolis School of Art. In his prime in 1974, this film was only rediscovered when widow Wendy Pirsig was archiving Bob’s life and work and posthumously editing “On Quality”. First published only in 2022 on Ted Pirsig’s YouTube channel. Recommended viewing for all.
And here is BBC Radio’s 2024 #ZMM50th Archive on 4 – “Turning 50: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“. A tremendously knowledgeable, empathetic and creative documentary by Dr Chris Harding with selected recordings of Bob and interviews with those deeply influenced by Bob’s work. Again highly recommended.
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RPA Resources – SCOPE
We are bringing over into the RPA pages and/or archiving existing content that remains on legacy sites including and/or linking appropriately with ongoing live sites:
“RobertPirsig-dot-org” originally curated by Dr Anthony McWatt, in Liverpool, UK
(The original pages are lost, but we have a full archive, and rescued the original domain name.)
“MoQ.org / Forum / Discuss“ previously curated by Mick “Horse” White, between 1991 and 2010, in Cambridge, UK
(See below for our new discussion forum.)
“ZMMQuality / VentureArete“ curated by Professor Henry Gurr, in Aiken, SC, USA
(Also shared via David Matos’ ZMMQuality Facebook page.)
“Psybertron Pirsig Pages“ including the much referenced “Pirsig Timeline“, curated by Ian Glendinning in North Yorkshire, UK
“Good Metaphysics” curated by David Harding in Melbourne, Australia.
We have a Bibliography Database of all available / relevant documents, files and media, independent of where they’re currently hosted and independent of whether they involve Robert Pirsig directly or whether they are otherwise about or relevant to his work.
(Currently mastered by Artun Turan and sharable via Google Drive(s) )
We have an Interactive Discussion Channel – “The Robert Pirsig Association Forum” for moderated discussions as a “Discord Server”.
(The invite link is time limited – if the link fails and you’d like to join, please use the contact form to ask for a fresh invite.)
We have an RPA YouTube Channel to host all our Audio-Visual media and live Chautauqua.
(See RPA ZMM Conversations for a full collection of our ZMM Conversations provided by Sevilla King at https://www.youtube.com/@aqualityexistence4842 )
We also have a Database of all Published Versions, Editions and Translations of ZMM and Lila. See C. Bartneck’s 2020 paper “The Design History of Robert M. Pirsig’s Books”. And if you possess or have information on other translated editions, please contribute to our collective effort by adding the information to the linked survey.
RPA Resources – Interests & Activities
Contact us if you’d like to help update and curate these resources or if you simply have material relevant to the RPA which you think we might not be aware of.
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