Phaedrus, wife and other son

ESParrothead · Post by **ESParrothead** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 12:34 am

Question: In Pirsig's book, he never explains what happened to Chris's mother and brother. He describes answering best as they can questions posed in Montana and makes it clear that Chris cannot go home or to a wide variety of relatives, but never explains what became of them. Does anybody know the answer? Thanks.<br />ESParrothead

Gun · Post by **Gun** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:20 am

Better late than never?
or just an annoying bump on the recent posts list?
My apologies if the latter.

The relatives are fine. No one will take chris due to chris' behavioral disorders. Basically, chris struggled greatly when Pirsig wasn't the father chris remembered and loved when pirsig came out of shock treatment. He was a stranger, which caused chris to echo old behavioral patterns that his father (phaedrus) had. Mental illness, introversion, short temper, etc...

deaddog · Post by **deaddog** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 7:41 am

In 1979, Pirsig's son Chris — who had played an important role in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — was stabbed to death during a mugging outside the San Francisco Zen Center. Pirsig discusses this incident in an afterword to subsequent editions of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, writing that he and his second spouse, Kimball, decided not to abort the child she conceived in 1980, because he had come to believe that this unborn child was a continuation of the life pattern that Chris had occupied. This child is Pirsig's daughter, Nell.

Gun · Post by **Gun** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 9:53 am

That right there, although touching, seemed to me to contradict the basic teaching of the book. I had it in my mind that ZMM was teaching monism, not dualism. Implying that, technically, I'm just as much 'Chris life pattern' as you are, as pirsig is, as a wrench, as a paint brush. I understand the dualism he specifically wanted to do away with was the seperation of self from experience. But the core of Zen is that we are all linked as the "self". Just different leaves to the same life tree. Of course though, Pirsig does seperate himself from Zen buddhism in the intro to the first book as well as from motorcycles concerning accuracy in either.