Hi Christoph
The flower half of the motif on the cover of Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM) is a Lotus Flower which has a special
place in Buddhism. According to Wiki:
"In*Buddhist*symbolism the*lotus*is symbolic of purity of the body,
speech, and mind as while rooted in the mud, its*flowers blossom*on long
stalks as if floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire.
It is also symbolic of detachment as drops of water easily slide off its
petals."
The flower is Zen, the spanner the motorcycle.
Something else that may also be of interest are the markings on the spanner.
On my ancient copy of ZAMM, on the shaft of the spanner I can see 2
impressions from the 'casting'. One is 5/16W and the other is 3/8BSF.
The first is for Whitworth (or British Standard Whitworth) and the
second is for British Standard Fine which relate to bolt/thread sizes
and were used extensively on British motorcycles, before and during the
1960's.
I don't know if this is to symbolise Pirsig's links with the UK or if
it's just an artist's attention to detail. It does seem a bit
incongruous when you think that Pirsig's motorcycle was Japanese which
would likely have used the metric system. It may be some other
additional symbolism or it may be nothing!
Food for thought?
Have a look at:
https://www.ebay.com/gds/Understanding-Whitworth-BSF-AF-BA-and-metric-tools-/10000000003499809/g.html
for more background info
There are other good references to be found if you search using Google.
Good luck with your research and feel free to post again with other
questions or ideas
Horse
On 02/10/2018 21:35, list wrote:
Hello,
I am working on some research about the various editions of Pirsig’s books and
I was wondering if anybody would know what flower/plant is depicted on several
of the covers. I would suspect that it somehow relates to the philosophical
ideas.
Any ideas?
Thank you,
Christoph
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