[fatbird]

This is the effect it had on me, reading it in college. It was the first time I'd seen such a mental journey, and it meshed almost perfectly with how my mind was working at the time: that kind of vocally articulated walk through a series of connected ideas. Mainly it told me it was okay to do so, to get deeply into my head and follow my reasoning and observations and just work through it all.

I got a degree in philosophy because of that book, in which I came to understand that Pirsig's project around "quality" was an idiosyncratic mashup of zen and western perspectives. I still loved the book and reread it several times. For a certain overly cerebral person, it's a balm and a respite.