Not About Zen Or Motorbikes

Remember how cool we felt walking around with dog-eared, spine-cracked copies of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? Remember how eagerly we picked up his next, Lila, only to be underwhelmed? Well, Robert Pirsig is still firing on all cylinders, as he reveals in this conversation:

“You know the structure of the metaphysics of quality. Static quality can be divided into intellectual, social, biological, and inorganic realms. Any attempt by a lower order to overcome a higher order represents evil. So those forces which prohibit intellectual freedom are evil according to the MOQ. Just as those biological forces which tend to prohibit social freedom are evil, and at an even lower level, even the inorganic forces of death that try to destroy biology are evil.”

Phew.