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Loading... Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (P.S.)by Robert M. Pirsig
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. There are several layers to this book. The outermost layer is a cross-country motorcycle trip Pirsig takes with his son, Chris. I probably enjoyed this part of the book the most, traveling vicariously through states I've never visited. Pirsig's occasional descriptions of the scenery and people is refreshingly frank. The next layer is a series of talks Pirsig conducts in his head while riding the motorcycle. Most of this is a discussion of Quality. Since most of the book is spent describing this concept I won't go into it here. The innermost layer is the life story of Phaedrus, a man whose past continually haunts Pirsig and serves as a backbone for his concept of Quality. Now that I've finished it, I don't feel particularly enlightened. I think I may have gotten more out of this book had I read it when it first came out, or perhaps if I were at all familiar with the existing schools of philosophical thought. Having never read Aristotle or Socrates, I can't say whether or not Pirsig's arguments against them have any merit. My favorite parts were when he was less zen and more motorcycle maintenance, especially the course on Gumptionology 101. That made me smile. All in all, this isn't the sort of book I could read for long stretches at a time, but rather something to dip into now and again. I'm glad to have read it, but I don't think it's something I would read again. (  ) melydia | Dec 22, 2009 |  Mental masturbation of the worst kind; totally self involving blather with little or no contribution to anything worthwhile save re-enforcement of the author's overblown ego. Even while not waxing tedious on encyclopedic anecdotes, the author's condescending judgmental attitude toward his travel mates makes me wonder why these people want to spend any time with the author in the first place.The marketing come-on gracing the front cover states, "a man in search of himself". I could buy into that if the book had any relation to a true Zen experience. This is more a monologue of scattered philosophical thought chosen to support the authors preconceived prejudices. (  )1  jwcooper3 | Nov 15, 2009 | This is one which, I hate to say, lost me towards the end. I really enjoyed the first two thirds of this book, but the text surrounding Persig's apparent mental breakdown and what seemed to be a second personality really threw me for a loop. Maybe I'm not "Zen" enough to understand it, as my professor vaguely implied, or maybe the failure can partially be laid on the author's own shoulders. Either way, tread with caution. I wouldn't tell anyone to avoid this book--I quite enjoyed it--but be prepared to be puzzled. (  )1 krysbrezinski | Nov 12, 2009 | What a pleasure. I read this umpteen years ago when I was in high school. It's quite fascinating to reread it as an adult. Beautiful story of father and son, beautiful attention to detail as they travel across the country, and very interesting philosophical exploration. It's not a fast read, as the philosophical sections require actual thought and digestion, but well worth the work. goldsteph | Oct 17, 2009 | This can only be described as a quality book. I loved it. (  )1 sherrysolman | Sep 17, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
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Phaedrus, our narrator, takes a present-tense cross-country motorcycle trip with his son during which the maintenance of the motorcycle becomes an illustration of how we can unify the cold, rational realm of technology with the warm, imaginative realm of artistry. As in Zen, the trick is to become one with the activity, to engage in it fully, to see and appreciate all details--be it hiking in the woods, penning an essay, or tightening the chain on a motorcycle.
In his autobiographical first novel, Pirsig wrestles both with the ghost of his past and with the most important philosophical questions of the 20th century--why has technology alienated us from our world? what are the limits of rational analysis? if we can't define the good, how can we live it? Unfortunately, while exploring the defects of our philosophical heritage from Socrates and the Sophists to Hume and Kant, Pirsig inexplicably stops at the middle of the 19th century. With the exception of Poincaré, he ignores the more recent philosophers who have tackled his most urgent questions, thinkers such as Peirce, Nietzsche (to whom Phaedrus bears a passing resemblance), Heidegger, Whitehead, Dewey, Sartre, Wittgenstein, and Kuhn. In the end, the narrator's claims to originality turn out to be overstated, his reasoning questionable, and his understanding of the history of Western thought sketchy. His solution to a synthesis of the rational and creative by elevating Quality to a metaphysical level simply repeats the mistakes of the premodern philosophers. But in contrast to most other philosophers, Pirsig writes a compelling story. And he is a true innovator in his attempt to popularize a reconciliation of Eastern mindfulness and nonrationalism with Western subject/object dualism. The magic of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance turns out to lie not in the answers it gives, but in the questions it raises and the way it raises them. Like a cross between The Razor's Edge and Sophie's World, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance takes us into "the high country of the mind" and opens our eyes to vistas of possibility. --Brian Bruya
(retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:52:23 -0500)
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