Questions

Concerning the book 'Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintanence' I would like to know how close the book is to Mr Pirsig's actual experience. A point that I wonder about is that in his book the mis-interpretation of the 'Phaedrus' is a key part of the story, but in my copy of the Penguin 'Phaedrus' it is clearly stated in the introduction that the story about the white and black horses is an analogy, and this penguin translation was published in 1973. It therefore seems odd that Mr Pirsig's chairman could have made such a bad mistake.

I am interested in the first world war. A point that I find hard to understand is why frontal assaults were continued for so long. Right in the early stages of the war, large numbers of attacking troops were wiped out by comparatively small numbers of defenders and this was celebrated at the time. So why did units which had successfully beaten off massed attacks adopt exactly the same attacking tactics themselves. Delusions of invincibility? I realise that until infiltration tactics, improved artillery techniques (short sharp heavy non-preregistered barrage followed by troop synchronised creeping barrage) and finally the tank, that there was really no alternative attack option. But as the early experience had shown that more casualties were inflicted on the attacker and that for some time the objective was 'attrition' surely the logical approach was to adopt defensive tactics with the odd small provocative action to encourage the enemy to attack again.

In the film 'Pocahontas' the song 'colours of the wind' has the words 'blue corn moon'. This term is not, as far as I know, used in the UK. However, we do have a term 'hunter's moon' which describes the moon in the autumn, when it can appear to be full for several days.Is this the UK equivalent of the US 'blue corn moon'?

The term 'strained heart' used to be used in the past. Climbing books etc from the 20's and 30's refer to people with 'strained hearts' who have to take a break for a year or so. This term does not seem to be used much nowadays. Is this because it was never a true medical condition or does it now go under another name.