Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The group arrives in Bozeman, and though the narrator remembers his surroundings, it all feels alien to him. Driving into the mountains, the group meets Robert and Gennie DeWeese, who are having a get together with friends from the university. The home is impressive, and makes the group feel relaxed. Though wanting to reconnect, the narrator is unable to connect with the others and tunes out their conversation. John jokes that the narrator must have been “crazy” to leave, which angers Robert, who is unaware that the Sutherlands might not know about his past, but the narrator brushes it off. The “stickiness” between John and Robert is due to their different conceptions of who the narrator is.

The group dines with the DeWeeses, and more guests arrive after dinner. As the narrator is a technical writer, Robert brings out his instructions for a barbeque he has been having trouble putting together, hoping that the narrator might find some flaw in the instructions. This act leads the narrator to comment on having “peace of mind” for bicycle assembly, referring to instructions he saved from a Japanese manual. The narrator explains that peace of mind is required for mechanical work because the aim is to assemble a machine that satisfies the builder.