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What fictional texts do you admit helped shape your views about yourself, life, love, etc...?

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What fictional texts do you admit helped shape your views about yourself, life, love, etc...?

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Have you ever read a piece of fiction that opened your eyes and your mind to new possibilities in your real life? Of course you have! Share here!
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R. LeBeaux
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Re: What fictional texts do you admit helped shape your views about yourself, life, love, etc...?

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Author of the novel Then Again - An Adventure in Time Travel
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Re: What fictional texts do you admit helped shape your views about yourself, life, love, etc...?

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RE: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Since R. LeBeaux didn’t mention anything about it, I looked this one up, and it was apparently quite a famous book that sold five million copies worldwide. I’d never heard of it before, but from the descriptions I found, it sounds pretty deep, maybe a little too deep for me. Still, I’m intrigued and am thinking about trying it. For others out there who aren’t familiar with it, here are some quotes from the Wikipedia page:

In ZAMM, Pirsig explores the meaning and concept of quality, a term he deems to be undefinable. Pirsig's thesis is that to truly experience quality one must both embrace and apply it as best fits the requirements of the situation. According to Pirsig, such an approach would avoid a great deal of frustration and dissatisfaction common to modern life.

The book details two types of personalities: those who are interested mostly in gestalts (romantic viewpoints, such as Zen, focused on being "In the moment", and not on rational analysis), and those who seek to know the details, understand the inner workings, and master the mechanics (classic viewpoints with application of rational analysis, vis-a-vis motorcycle maintenance) and so on.

Pirsig aims towards a perception of the world that embraces both sides, the rational and the romantic. This means encompassing "irrational" sources of wisdom and understanding as well as science, reason and technology. In particular, this must include bursts of creativity and intuition that seemingly come from nowhere and are not (in his view) rationally explicable. Pirsig seeks to demonstrate that rationality and Zen-like "being in the moment" can harmoniously coexist. He suggests such a combination of rationality and romanticism can potentially bring a higher quality of life.


Like I said, pretty deep stuff. I’m wondering if you, or anyone else, might have any comments on it.
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Re: What fictional texts do you admit helped shape your views about yourself, life, love, etc...?

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The Little Engine that Could :)

C'mon, everyone must have been influenced by this book.
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Re: What fictional texts do you admit helped shape your views about yourself, life, love, etc...?

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kelstan wrote:The Little Engine that Could :)

C'mon, everyone must have been influenced by this book.
Okay, I'll admit it. This one probably gave me the guts to attend my first kindergarten class.
Author of the novel Then Again - An Adventure in Time Travel
amazon.com/Then-Again-Adventure-Time-Tr ... f_=asap_bc
http://www.wmpublishing.com/
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Re: What fictional texts do you admit helped shape your views about yourself, life, love, etc...?

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Avid Reader wrote:RE: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Since R. LeBeaux didn’t mention anything about it, I looked this one up, and it was apparently quite a famous book that sold five million copies worldwide. I’d never heard of it before, but from the descriptions I found, it sounds pretty deep, maybe a little too deep for me. Still, I’m intrigued and am thinking about trying it. For others out there who aren’t familiar with it, here are some quotes from the Wikipedia page:

In ZAMM, Pirsig explores the meaning and concept of quality, a term he deems to be undefinable. Pirsig's thesis is that to truly experience quality one must both embrace and apply it as best fits the requirements of the situation. According to Pirsig, such an approach would avoid a great deal of frustration and dissatisfaction common to modern life.

The book details two types of personalities: those who are interested mostly in gestalts (romantic viewpoints, such as Zen, focused on being "In the moment", and not on rational analysis), and those who seek to know the details, understand the inner workings, and master the mechanics (classic viewpoints with application of rational analysis, vis-a-vis motorcycle maintenance) and so on.

Pirsig aims towards a perception of the world that embraces both sides, the rational and the romantic. This means encompassing "irrational" sources of wisdom and understanding as well as science, reason and technology. In particular, this must include bursts of creativity and intuition that seemingly come from nowhere and are not (in his view) rationally explicable. Pirsig seeks to demonstrate that rationality and Zen-like "being in the moment" can harmoniously coexist. He suggests such a combination of rationality and romanticism can potentially bring a higher quality of life.


Like I said, pretty deep stuff. I’m wondering if you, or anyone else, might have any comments on it.
This was one of my favorite books and was a big influence on me. It is very easy to read. The only thing I recall offhand from it was how tightening a spark plug is an exercise in Zen Buddhism because you have to get the feel exactly right, just like an archer has to get into the zone to hit the bullseye.

It is a bit like The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse which we recently read here, as a western interpretation of Buddhism. That was also a big influence on me.

Other novels that had the biggest influence on me included The Lord of the Rings by Tolkein, novels by Solzhenitsyn such as Lenin in Zurich, everything by Carlos Castaneda, and science fiction books by John Wyndham, Robert Heinlein and Robert Silverberg. And The Jungle Books by Rudyand Kipling.
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Re: What fictional texts do you admit helped shape your views about yourself, life, love, etc...?

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Avid Reader wrote:RE: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Since R. LeBeaux didn’t mention anything about it, I looked this one up, and it was apparently quite a famous book that sold five million copies worldwide. I’d never heard of it before, but from the descriptions I found, it sounds pretty deep, maybe a little too deep for me. Still, I’m intrigued and am thinking about trying it. For others out there who aren’t familiar with it, here are some quotes from the Wikipedia page:

In ZAMM, Pirsig explores the meaning and concept of quality, a term he deems to be undefinable. Pirsig's thesis is that to truly experience quality one must both embrace and apply it as best fits the requirements of the situation. According to Pirsig, such an approach would avoid a great deal of frustration and dissatisfaction common to modern life.

The book details two types of personalities: those who are interested mostly in gestalts (romantic viewpoints, such as Zen, focused on being "In the moment", and not on rational analysis), and those who seek to know the details, understand the inner workings, and master the mechanics (classic viewpoints with application of rational analysis, vis-a-vis motorcycle maintenance) and so on.

Pirsig aims towards a perception of the world that embraces both sides, the rational and the romantic. This means encompassing "irrational" sources of wisdom and understanding as well as science, reason and technology. In particular, this must include bursts of creativity and intuition that seemingly come from nowhere and are not (in his view) rationally explicable. Pirsig seeks to demonstrate that rationality and Zen-like "being in the moment" can harmoniously coexist. He suggests such a combination of rationality and romanticism can potentially bring a higher quality of life.


Like I said, pretty deep stuff. I’m wondering if you, or anyone else, might have any comments on it.
I've never read this book, but it may be a little deep for now considering that I just started a large volume of Grimm's Fairytales that I got on sale from Barnes and Noble. It's UNABRIDGED and wonderful. :)

If it matters, I'm a details person with the bursts of creativity...
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Re: What fictional texts do you admit helped shape your views about yourself, life, love, etc...?

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R. LeBeaux wrote:
kelstan wrote:The Little Engine that Could :)

C'mon, everyone must have been influenced by this book.
Okay, I'll admit it. This one probably gave me the guts to attend my first kindergarten class.
I admit it; I love The Little Engine That Could. EVERYBODY has to know at least one line from this book.
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Re: What fictional texts do you admit helped shape your views about yourself, life, love, etc...?

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tjamesmoss.author wrote:EVERYBODY has to know at least one line from this book.
"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."
Author of the novel Then Again - An Adventure in Time Travel
amazon.com/Then-Again-Adventure-Time-Tr ... f_=asap_bc
http://www.wmpublishing.com/
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